BT  205  .M54  1914 
Miller,  Lucius  Hopkins. 
Our  knowledge  of  Christ 


OUR    KNOWLEDGE    OF 
CHRIST 


FEB    1  1915 


AN  HISTORICAL  APPROACHV  a 


LUCIUS  HOPKINS  MILLER 

ASSISTANT  PROFESSOR  OF  BIBIilCAL   INSTRDCTION 
IN    PBINCKTON  UNIVERSITY. 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1914 


Copyright,  19U, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published  December,  1914 


TO  MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

We  hear  it  often  said  that  these  are  days 
of  change.  Indeed  they  are.  Perhaps  there 
is  more  of  the  spirit  of  change  in  this  genera- 
tion than  in  many  that  have  gone  before. 
But  we  must  not  forget  that  change  has  been 
a  continual  element  in  human  affairs.  We 
all  accept  this  in  general  whether  we  believe, 
or  do  not  believe,  that  change  means  pro- 
gress. 

But  many  who  recognize  this  factor  in 
human  life  at  the  same  time  maintain  that 
it  does  not  hold  in  the  realm  of  religion 
and  religious  thought.  In  their  minds,  any 
change  of  view  regarding  the  inspiration  of 
the  Bible  destroys  reverence  for  the  Bible  as 
the  Word  of  God;  any  change  of  view  re- 
garding Jesus  Christ  dethrones  him  from  his 


vi  PREFACE 

eternal  place  as  the  Lord  and  Master  of  our 
lives. 

I  have  too  much  respect  and  admiration 
for  the  spiritual  power  and  intellectual 
honesty  of  thousands  of  men  and  women 
who  think  in  this  way  to  appear  for  a  mo- 
ment as  in  any  sense  their  antagonist.  I 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere 
permeated  by  such  ideas  and  I  owe  too  much 
to  my  upbringing  to  be  able,  even  if  I 
wished,  to  deny  the  spiritual  value  of  that 
heritage. 

But  there  are  many,  brought  up  as  I  was 
brought  up,  and  many  others  not  so  reared 
for  whom  the  old  has  become  increasingly 
unsatisfying.  I  do  not  mean  those  who  have 
failed  to  keep  their  religious  life  warm  and 
tender;  for  this,  unfortunately,  may  and 
does  happen  to  men  of  all  shades  of  thought. 
I  mean  men  who  are  sincerely  trying  to 
know  and  to  live  the  truth. 

There  are  several  legitimate  reasons  why 
such  men  often  feel  that  the  old  statements 


PREFACE  vii 

are  unsatisfactory.  One  is  that  historical 
investigation  has  altered  their  view  of  the 
past.  I  admit  that  much  which  has  been 
put  forth  under  the  guise  of  historical 
criticism  has  been  insecurely  grounded. 
Still,  such  a  phenomenon  is  inevitable  if  the 
benefits  of  complete  freedom  of  investiga- 
tion are  to  be  secured.  Conclusions  which 
distort  or  run  beyond  the  facts  destroy 
themselves,  sooner  or  later;  further,  the 
scientific  law  of  "  trial  and  error  "  is  too 
important  to  be  overlooked.  But  the  ad- 
mission just  made  does  not  alter  the  plain 
fact  that  historical  study  has  forced  many 
good  and  sincere  Christians  to  alter  greatly 
their  views  regarding  the  Bible,  including 
the  Gospels  and  the  life  of  Christ.  This  re- 
adjustment is  for  many  a  hard  trial  and  be- 
set with  religious  danger.  Those  who  are 
going  through  it  should  guard  their  religious 
life  by  every  possible  means. 

I  wish  to  emphasize  that  I  am  not  particu- 
larly interested  in  pressing  a  new  point  of 


viii  PREFACE 

view  upon  any  who  honestly  and  intelligently 
hold  to  the  age-old  formulas  and  derive  com- 
fort and  power  from  them.  The  religious 
life  is  the  main  thing  for  us  all.  But  many 
of  us  have  been  obliged  to  readjust  our  views 
for  the  very  sake  of  that  Christian  faith  we 
long  for  and  need.  Many  others  have  turned 
their  backs  upon  the  Church,  and  even  upon 
all  religion,  because  they  have  not  been 
helped  to  a  new  view  which  would  have 
shown  them  that  such  desertion  is  unneces- 
sary, harmful  and  wrong. 

It  is  for  such  that  this  little  book  has  been 
written  and  my  sole  and  sincere  purpose  in 
writing  it  has  been  to  advance  the  interests 
of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  men.  To  those 
who  may  think  its  conclusions  negative  I  can 
only  say  that  these  conclusions  form  a  basis 
on  which  I  have  been  able  to  maintain  a  vital, 
positive  faith  in  Christ  as  Master,  Lord  and 
Saviour.  This  basis  has  set  me  free  to  see 
and  to  hold  before  myself  the  simplicity  of 
the  Gospel.    But  this  simplicity,  as  I  have 


PREFACE  ix 

elsewhere  said,  is  truly  "  a  terrible  simplic- 
ity." Intellectual  problems  may  be  hard  to 
solve;  but  the  hardest  problem  of  all  is  to 
maintain  one's  Christian  spirit  in  the  midst 
of  the  hurly-burly  of  our  distracted  modern 
life.  The  gravity  of  this  problem  should 
constrain  all  who  are  in  any  way  akin  in  their 
attitude  toward  Christ  to  cease  strife  and 
join  hands  in  the  Great  Campaign  of  win- 
ning the  world  to  Christ. 

The  four  chapters  of  this  book  appeared 
originally  as  articles  in  The  Biblical 
World  of  Chicago.  I  wish  to  thank  the 
editors  for  permission  to  reprint  them  in 
book-form.  A  few  changes  have  been  made 
but  nothing  essential  has  been  altered. 

Lucius  Hopkins  Miller, 
Princeton,  New  Jersey, 
September  21,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

The  Soubce  op  Oub  Infobmation  Concebning  Jesus  1 
The   Meagerness    of    Information    Outside   the 

Gospels 1 

Why  Were  the  Gospels  Written  so  Late?  ...  4 

What  Needs  Gave  Rise  to  the  Gospels?  ....  10 

How  Did  the  Gospels  Come  into  Being?  ...  19 

The  Logia   of  Matthew 20 

The  Gospels 22 

How  Reliable  are  these  Sources? 29 

The  Virgin  Birth  of  Jesus 30 

The  Resurrection 33 

The  Miracles 38 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus 44 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Life  of  Jesus 48 

The  Early  Influences  under  which  Jesus  Lived  .  50 

The  Call  to  the  Messianic  Life 55 

The  Chronology  of  the  Ministry 59 

The  Early  Preaching 60 

Early  Difficulties 62 

The  Change  at  Caesarea  Philippi 65 

Jesus'  Expectation  of  Death  and  Resurrection  .  67 
xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

FAQE 

The  Last  Journey  to  Jerusalem 73 

The  Last  Week  in  Jerusalem 75 

The  Resurrection 80 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus 85 

Method  of  Interpretation 86 

The  Inward  Emphasis  of  Jesus'  Teaching  and 

His  Attitude  Toward  the  Law 87 

Christian   Inwardness 95 

What  Does  Jesus  Teach  Regarding  God  ...  98 

The  Power  of  God 99 

The  Love  of  God 101 

God  and  Nature .113 

The  Nearness  of  God 114 

What  Does  Jesus  Teach  Concerning  Man?  .     .  116 

The  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven " 123 

Some  Other  Fundamental  Questions     ....  125 

Is  Jesus'  Teaching  Social  in  its  Emphasis  .     .     .  127 

Conclusion 129 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Divinity  of  Christ 131 

The  New  Phase  of  the  Question 132 

The  Teaching  of  the  New  Testament  ....  134 

The  Rise  of  the  Creeds 138 

The  Incarnation  and  the  Doctrine  of  Human 

Nature        142 

God  and  the  Holy  Spirit 148 

The  Main  Cause  of  Present  Misunderstanding  .  154 

Can  We  Believe  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ?  .     .  156 

Index 163 


OUR    KNOWLEDGE    OF 
CHRIST 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMA- 
TION   CONCERNING   JESUS 

The  Meagerness  of  Information  Out- 
side The  Gospels 

If  we  were  deprived  of  the  four  Gospels, 
our  information  regarding  the  hfe  of  Jesus 
would  be  extremely  meager. 

Strangely  enough,  Josephus,  the  Jewish 
historian  who  lived  in  the  latter  half  of 
the  first  century  and  wrote  at  length  about 
the  Jews,  does  not  mention  Jesus;  that 
is,  in  what  is  considered  his  genuine  writ- 
ing. Tacitus,  however,  speaks  of  a  certain 
"  Christus  "  who  was  put  to  death  in  the 
days  of  Pilate,  probably  our  Jesus. 

Paul,  the  earliest  New  Testament  writer, 

gives  us  only  scanty  references  to  Jesus' 

1 


2        SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

earthly  life.  Whether  he  knew  much  about 
the  details  is  an  open  question.  It  is  hard  to 
believe  that  he  did  not  and  yet  hard  to  see 
why  he  refers  to  them  so  little  if  he  did. 
The  reason  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  center  of  his  interest  was  the  "  Risen 
Christ."  "  I  know  not  Christ  after  the 
flesh,"  says  Paul.  Whether  that  means  that 
he  actually  did  not  know,  or  that  he  delib- 
erately put  aside  such  knowledge  in  favor 
of  a  higher  and  a  better  knowledge,  is  hard 
to  say.  Paul  preached  Christ  crucified  and 
risen;  the  death  explaining  the  new  rela- 
tion of  Christians  to  the  law  and  to  sin, 
the  resurrection  revealing  the  new  life  in 
the  Spirit.  Thus  his  testimony  is  histori- 
cally valuable,  in  the  present  connection,  at 
two  points,  chiefly,  but  two  very  important 
points — the  death  of  Christ  and  the  resur- 
rection. Concerning  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
the  Pauline  epistles  contain  only  four  defi- 
nite quotations  and  a  few  other  allusions. 
The  other  New  Testament  epistles  have 


INFORMATION  OUTSIDE  GOSPELS     3 

few  historical  references,  are  all  later  than 
the  Gospels  themselves,  and  so  are  of  little 
independent  value  for  the  life  of  Jesus.  The 
Apocalypse  gives  us  little  or  nothing  and  the 
Book  of  Acts  is  the  second  volume  of  a  work 
of  which  Luke  is  volume  one;  hence  it  usu- 
ally assumes  all  the  information  contained 
in  the  latter.  The  Book  of  Acts,  however, 
does  purport  to  give  us  facts  concerning 
Jesus  from  the  time  of  the  resurrection  to 
that  of  the  ascension;  it  gives  a  picture  of 
the  ideas  and  spirit  of  the  first  Christians 
and  the  rise  of  these  ideas,  the  origin  of  this 
spirit,  in  fact  the  very  existence  of  these 
Christians,  we  must  account  for;  finally,  it 
supplies  one  priceless  saying  of  Jesus,  else- 
where unknown,  namely,  "  It  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive  " — a  quotation  found, 
however,  in  a  speech  assigned  to  Paul. 

In  spite  of  these  apparently  negative  re- 
sults, had  we  only  these  writings  and  no 
Gospels,  we  should  know  that  a  certain  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  so  lived  and  taught  that  he  in- 


4        SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

spired  many  Jews  with  a  new  way  of  life; 
that  he  was  done  to  death  by  the  Jewish 
leaders  because  of  his  teaching  and  example ; 
that  his  followers  believed,  at  least,  that  he 
had  risen  from  the  dead,  had  appeared  to 
them  and  continued  to  live  in  direct  com- 
munion with  them  through  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
that  these  followers  finally  broke  away  from 
Judaism  and  established  the  Christian  relig- 
ion. 

Why  Were  the  Gospels  Written  So 
Late? 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  question  has  ever 

since  been  raised  with  insistence:  "What 

sort  of  personality  could  give  rise  to  such 

facts?  " 

This  question  our  four  Gospels  profess  to 

answer.    We  must  remember  that  they  were 

all  written  forty  to  seventy  years  after  the 

death  of  Jesus  and  that  the  authors  had  to 

depend  for  their  information  upon  either 


WHY  GOSPELS  SO  LATE?  5 

oral  or  previously  written  accounts.  They 
wrote  after  Paul's  work  was  done  and  after 
Christianity  had  secured  a  good  start  upon 
the  path  of  world-conquest.  Many  prob- 
lems had  arisen  which  did  not  emerge  dur- 
ing the  life  of  Jesus  and  many  things  had 
acquired  an  entirely  new  aspect. 

Furthermore,  the  deeds  and  the  sayings 
of  Jesus,  whose  report  was  handed  down 
during  these  intervening  years,  were  not  re- 
called and  recorded  by  men  like  our  modern 
historians.  Ancient  writers  did  not  usually 
employ  a  careful  and  a  conscious  method  for 
the  express  purpose  of  setting  forth  historic 
fact  in  a  way  that  would  stand  the  test  of  an 
exacting  criticism.  Even  when  they  pos- 
sessed this  purpose,  as  the  author  of  Luke 
certainly  did,  both  the  method  used  and  the 
criticism  to  which  the  results  were  subjected 
were  very  different  from  what  we  now  un- 
derstand by  the  terms  "  historical  method  " 
and  "  historical  criticism."  The  atmosphere 
and  circumstances  of  the  case  were  then 


6        SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

quite  different  and,  while  we  need  not  be 
unduly  alarmed,  we  must,  as  honest  and 
intelligent  men  and  women,  make  due  al- 
lowance for  these  things.  Let  us  try  to 
reconstruct  the  actual  conditions. 

Jesus  wrote  nothing  and,  for  a  long  time 
at  least,  his  immediate  disciples  wrote  noth- 
ing about  the  things  that  most  seriously  con- 
cerned them.    This  is  easily  understood. 

In  the  first  place,  many  eyewitnesses  were 
still  alive — men  and  women  who  had  fol- 
lowed Jesus  and  had  companied  with  him. 
They  had  seen  more  or  less  the  things  which 
he  did  and  had  heard  his  words  as  they  fell 
from  his  lips.  In  many  communities,  both  in 
Palestine  and  elsewhere,  there  were  some  to 
whom  the  others,  less  favored,  could  turn 
with  the  questions:  "  What  did  Jesus  say?  " 
"  What  did  Jesus  do?  "  No  doubt,  in  this 
way,  many  different  reports  arose,  and  also 
varying  interpretations  of  the  same  reports. 
Yet,  in  this  way  also,  a  body  of  true  tradi- 
tion must  have  been  built  up  and  a  funda^ 


WHY  GOSPELS  SO  LATE?  7 

mentally  correct  impression  of  Jesus'  per- 
sonality transmitted. 

Another  fact  which  midoubtedly  delayed 
the  rise  of  written  accounts  was  this.  The 
earliest  Christians  were  all  Jews  and,  for 
a  time,  considered  themselves  good  Jews. 
They  revered  the  Law;  they  used  and 
honored  the  sacred  Scriptures  of  their  race. 
Most  of  the  early  gentile  converts,  also, 
were  either  proselytes  to  Judaism  or  "  God- 
fearing Gentiles,"  like  Cornelius  the  Cen- 
turion, and  had  attached  themselves  to  Juda- 
ism largely  because  of  the  strong  appeal  of 
the  Old  Testament  to  their  better  selves. 
The  difference  between  all  these  people  and 
the  orthodox  Jew  was  that,  as  followers  of 
the  Nazarene  Prophet,  they  interpreted  the 
Scriptures  in  the  light  of  their  Christian 
experience.  The  early  chapters  of  the  Book 
of  Acts,  and  in  fact  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment, show  clearly  that  the  first  Christians 
saw  in  the  Old  Testament  the  prophecy  and 
justification  of  their  views  of  Jesus.    Thus 


8       SOURCES  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

the  Old  Testament  was  christianized,  and 
the  Christians  had  in  their  hands  from  the 
beginning  sacred  books  which  supported 
their  faith  and  strengthened  their  hearts  for 
daily  living.  Not  for  some  time  did  they  feel 
the  need  of  adding  to  this  literature  other 
writings  distinctively  descriptive  of  the  facts 
and  experiences  of  their  more  recent  past. 

One  of  the  cardinal  points  in  primitive 
Christian  faith  was  the  belief  that  Jesus  was 
very  soon  to  come  again  to  set  up  his  King- 
dom. The  first  Christians  waited  almost 
momentarily  for  this  event.  Paul  himself 
only  gradually  grew  away  from  the  idea. 
They  saw  no  use  in  recording  for  posterity 
the  events  of  Jesus'  earthly  life  when  he 
himself  was  so  soon  to  appear  to  take  his 
faithful  ones  to  himself  and  "  lead  them 
into  all  truth."  With  the  roll  of  the  years 
and  ever-recurrent  disappointment  this  faith 
receded  and,  as  those  who  had  seen  the  Lord 
fell  away,  the  conviction  slowly  ripened  that 
a  long  time  must  elapse  before  this  great 


WHY  GOSPELS  SO  LATE?  9 

hope  was  to  be  realized.  Out  of  such  a  con- 
viction only  could  the  distinctively  literary 
motive  arise. 

Finally,  Paul's  whole  emphasis  minimized 
the  tendency  to  look  back  and  record  what 
had  been.  He  thought  of  Christ  in  heaven 
rather  than  of  Christ  on  earth;  of  the  risen 
Christ  rather  than  of  the  earthly,  historical 
Jesus.  He  bade  men  look  up  and  ahead,  not 
back.  Paul's  influence  was  paramount  in 
most  of  the  gentile  Christian  communities 
and  this  influence  made  against  that  interest 
in  the  past  out  of  which  our  Gospels  arose. 

For  all  these  reasons,  no  little  time  elapsed 
before  the  need  of  written  accounts  was 
felt  and  we  can  easily  understand,  therefore, 
why  we  have  to  take  into  consideration  a 
fairly  long  interval  between  the  death  of 
Christ  and  the  writing  of  our  Gospels. 


10      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

What  Needs  Gave  Rise  to  the  Gos- 
pels? 

Professor  Allan  Menzies,  in  The  Earliest 
Gospel,  indicates  three  needs  always  pres- 
ent in  every  religious  movement.  As  we 
pass  them  in  review,  we  shall  see  that  these 
needs  existed  in  the  early  Church  and  that 
the  Gospel  material  was  selected,  indeed  the 
Gospels  themselves  written  and  preserved, 
as  a  result  of  very  practical  motives. 

Menzies  says  that  "  every  religious  body 
is  seeking  constantly  for  explanations  of  its 
own  character  and  its  own  arrangements 
and  institutions."  This  is  a  motive  that 
actuates  us  to-day  regarding  many  common 
practices  ordinarily  taken  as  a  matter  of 
course.  Why  does  the  United  States  resent 
and  oppose  any  attempt  of  a  foreign  power 
to  extend  its  territory  in  the  western  hemi- 
sphere? To  answer  this  question  we  return 
to  the  age  of  James  Monroe  and  refresh  our 


NEEDS  GIVING  RISE  TO  GOSPELS   11 

minds  with  the  circumstances  surrounding 
the  original  promulgation  of  the  "  Monroe 
Doctrine."  In  a  case  of  suspected  theft, 
why  may  we  not  go  through  the  house  of  a 
suspect  without  a  search-warrant?  To  un- 
derstand this  we  go  back  to  English  common 
law  by  which  a  man  is  guaranteed  certain 
inalienable  rights  upon  his  own  premises. 
Why  do  we  Protestants  make  so  much  of 
the  Bible  while  Catholics  do  not?  The  an- 
swer must  be  sought  in  the  history  of  Lu- 
ther's controversy  with  Catholicism. 

Similarly,  the  Christians  of  the  second 
generation  found  themselves  ordering  their 
communal  life  in  certaiu  ways,  and  the  ques- 
tions must  often  have  arisen :  "  Why  do  we 
do  these  things?  "  "  Why  are  we  Christians 
baptized  upon  entering  the  Christian  fellow- 
ship? "  "  Why  do  we  celebrate  the  first  day 
of  the  week  as  the  Lord's  Day,  instead  of 
the  seventh?  "  "  Why  do  we  not  observe 
the  commands  of  the  Mosaic  law  as  our 
Jewish  brothers  do?  "     "  Why  do  we  em- 


12      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

phasize  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  special  mark 
of  our  unity?  "  The  need  of  answering  such 
questions  stimulated  the  remembrance  of 
those  events  and  teachings  which  would  best 
satisfy  inquiring  minds.  For,  not  only 
would  Christians  themselves  ask  each  other 
these  things;  non- Christian  friends  and  op- 
ponents would  also  ask  them  and  an  answer 
must  be  had. 

This  situation  accounts  for  much  of  the 
material  selected.  That  we  have  only  a  se- 
lection is  evident  the  moment  we  compare 
the  meagerness  of  our  reports  with  the  un- 
doubted extent  of  Jesus'  teaching  and  activ- 
ity. The  author  of  the  Gospel  of  John  is 
fundamentally  right  when  he  says,  with  ap- 
parent over-enthusiasm :  "  And  there  are 
also  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the 
which  if  they  should  be  written  every  one,  I 
suppose  that  even  the  world  itself  would  not 
contain  the  books  that  should  be  written." 

And  so,  in  response  to  this  need  of  ex- 
planation, much  was  remembered  and  writ- 


NEEDS  GIVING  RISE  TO  GOSPELS   13 

ten  down,  among  other  things,  about  John 
the  Baptist  and  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  about 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  Law, 
and  about  his  death  and  resurrection.  Other 
motives  were  operating  too,  as  we  shall  see, 
but  the  desire  to  understand  and  explain 
present  practice  was  certainly  one. 

Next,  Menzies  says :  "  Every  religious 
body  is  seeking  constantly  to  defend  itself 
against  attacks  made  on  it  from  without." 
We  see  this  motive  all  about  us;  in  all  sorts 
of  organizations,  religious  and  non-religious. 
Every  political  party  has  its  platform  and, 
in  the  heat  of  a  campaign,  arguments  of  all 
sorts,  good  and  bad,  are  brought  forth  to 
demonstrate  effectively  the  superiority  of 
one  party  and  its  principles  over  all  other 
parties  and  principles.  Religions  and  re- 
ligious sects  adopt  the  same  program.  Not 
so  much  as  in  bygone  generations,  perhaps, 
for  we  have  acquired  manners  and  some  wis- 
dom. But  a  man  must  always  stand  up  for 
his  ideas,  if  he  is  a  7nan,  and  so  must  relig- 


14      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

ious  organizations,  if  they  still  have  any  salt 
in  them. 

Thus  we  have  become  familiar  with  Cath- 
olic preachments  on  the  authority  of  the 
Church  and  Protestant  insistence  on  the 
Bible;  with  the  Episcopalian  defense  of  the 
Apostolic  Succession  and  the  Baptist  brief 
for  complete  immersion.  And  current  liter- 
ature, especially  religious  literature,  bears 
the  mark  of  these  divisions  and  contentions. 

One  cannot  read  very  far  in  any  Gospel 
without  coming  upon  a  passage  that  is  evi- 
dently aimed  at  somebody.  The  Book  of 
Matthew  best  exemplifies  this.  From  be- 
ginning to  end  it  holds  a  brief  for  the  the- 
sis that  Jesus'  life  completely  fulfilled  Old 
Testament  prophecy.  In  the  first  chapter 
we  read:  "  Now  all  this  is  come  to  pass,  that 
it  might  be  fulfilled  ....";  and  so  it 
goes  on  to  the  very  end  of  the  Gospel  where 
we  read :  "  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which 
was  spoken  through  Jeremiah  the  prophet. 


NEEDS  GIVING  RISE  TO  GOSPELS   15 

It  is  clear  that  such  arguments  served  to 
confirm  Christians  in  their  own  faith,  but 
they  were  inserted  for  the  additional  pur- 
pose of  convincing  outsiders,  objectors,  and 
enemies.  This  is  evident  not  only  from  the 
Gospels  themselves  but  also  because  it  is 
quite  in  line  with  the  reports  we  have 
elsewhere  of  early  Christian  argumenta- 
tion. This  motive  must  have  been  especially 
strong  in  every  report  that  had  to  do  with 
Jesus'  death.  Paul  tells  us  that  the  Cross 
was  "  to  the  Jew  a  stumbling-block  and  to 
the  Greeks  foolishness."  This  indifferent  or 
antagonistic  attitude  had  to  be  overcome, 
especially  in  regard  to  such  a  central  fact  as 
the  death  of  the  Lord.  And  so,  in  the  Book 
of  Acts,  we  find  Peter  wrestling  with  the 
problem  and,  in  Paul's  writings,  the  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty  occupies  a  large  place. 

It  is  inconceivable  that  this,  and  other 
polemical  matters,  should  not  have  influ- 
enced both  the  form  and  the  content  of  our 
Gospels.      These   questions   were   insistent 


16      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

because  they  were  continually  raised  by 
enemies  who  would  not  keep  still.  There 
would  be  no  better  way  of  answering  them 
than  by  relating  certain  acts  or  sayings  of 
Jesus  himself.  This  is,  without  doubt,  one 
of  several  reasons  why  so  much  space  is 
given  to  the  details  of  Jesus'  last  days.  We 
may  say,  then,  that  much  of  our  informa- 
tion about  Jesus  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
fact  that  questions  in  dispute  caused  certain 
things  to  be  emphasized  and  remembered 
through  the  constant  repetition  of  unavoid- 
able argument. 

Lastly,  Professor  Menzies  says  that  every 
religious  body  "  is  constantly  compelled  to 
return  to  its  source  and  to  refresh  itself  at 
the  original  truth  which  lies  at  its  begin- 
ning." This  is  the  practical  devotional  de- 
sire which  seeks  to  keep  the  spirit  of  the  or- 
ganization free  from  contamination  and  dim- 
inution. To  employ  once  again  a  modern 
political  analogy,  we  see  in  this  tendency  the 
very  motive  which  impels  us,  as  good  Ameri- 


NEEDS  GIVING  RISE  TO  GOSPELS   17 

can  citizens,  to  remind  ourselves  of  Lincoln 
and  Washington,  their  spirit,  service  and 
ideals.  Just  so  has  it  been  with  Christianity 
from  the  beginning.  In  the  Book  of  Acts, 
Paul  exhorts  the  elders  at  Miletus  "  to  help 
the  weak  and  to  remember  the  words  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  that  he  himself  said,  *  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'  "  In  I 
Corinthians  he  endeavors  to  remedy  abuses 
that  had  crept  into  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  by  reminding  them  of  Jesus' 
last  supper  with  his  disciples.  The  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  urges  his 
hearers  to  "  run  with  patience  the  race  that 
is  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus  the  au- 
thor and  perfecter  of  our  faith." 

That  the  selection  and  remembrance  of 
most  of  our  Gospel  material  was  due,  not  to 
motives  of  explanation  or  polemic,  but  to 
that  of  practical  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment, is  undoubted.  The  story  of  the  temp- 
tation would  be  cherished  for  its  practical 
value,  if  for  nothing  else,  witnessing  that  the 


18     SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

Lord  "  was  touched  with  a  feeling  for  our 
infirmities."  The  Cross  must  have  been  held 
up  continually  as  an  example  of  "  patient 
endurance  unto  the  end."  The  Agony  in  the 
Garden  would  point  the  way  to  a  repetition, 
under  similar  circumstances,  of  the  prayer, 
"  Not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done."  The 
beautiful  blending  of  patience  and  righteous 
indignation,  displayed  in  the  Master's  deal- 
ings with  the  Pharisees,  would  help  the  dis- 
ciples to  maintain  the  proper  spirit  in  their 
own  relations  with  the  same  enemies.  Most 
of  the  parables  appealed  to  the  apostolic 
Christians,  as  to  us,  because  they  bear  di- 
rectly on  the  problem  of  daily  living. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  we  may  say  with 
complete  conviction  that  our  Gospels  arose, 
not  because  of  a  purely  historical  motive, 
as  we  moderns  understand  that  term,  but 
chiefly  in  response  to  these  intensely  practi- 
cal needs.  If  we  remember  this  fact,  it 
should  help  us  greatly  in  estimating  the  his- 
torical reUability  of  the  accounts.     Before 


HOW  THE  GOSPELS  AROSE  19 

we  do  that,  however,  let  us  try  to  sketch  the 
probable  process  by  which  the  Gospels  came 
into  being. 

How  Did  the  Gospels  Come  into  Be- 
ing? 

Jesus  lived  and  taught.  For  at  least 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years,  probably,  what 
he  had  said  and  done  was  handed  down 
merely  by  word  of  mouth.  In  this  period  of 
oral  tradition,  the  motives  already  mentioned 
played  a  deciding  part  in  winnowing  out 
and  shaping  the  reports.  In  the  frequent 
disputes  of  the  early  days,  the  disciples 
would  be  continually  asking:  "What  did 
the  Lord  say?  "  and  "  What  did  the  Lord 
do?  "  Probably  the  sayings  of  Jesus  were 
recalled  more  often  and  more  accurately 
than  his  deeds. 

At  the  same  time,  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  his  sayings  were  reported,  now  in  Ara- 
maic and  now  in  Greek ;  and  probably,  also, 
in  Latin.     For  this  reason,  among  others, 


20     SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

the  reports  would  vary  in  form  and  content 
in  different  communities.  This  enables  us 
to  understand  partly  the  variant  forms 
of  the  same  teaching  in  different  Gospels. 
Probably,  although  we  cannot  prove  it,  writ- 
ten collections  of  sayings,  or  "  logia,"  arose 
in  different  places.  Some  of  them  would  be 
written  in  Aramaic,  the  language  of  Jesus 
and  of  all  his  Jewish  contemporaries;  some 
of  them  in  Greek,  the  language  which  had 
progressively  dominated  the  then  civilized 
world,  from  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great.  These  collections  would  be  many 
and  different,  meeting  varied  needs  and  re- 
flecting differing  remembrances  of  what 
Jesus  had  said.  It  is  possible,  too,  that 
some  of  these  writings  contained  accounts 
of  Jesus'  deeds.  Still,  the  teaching  would 
predominate  in  them. 

The  Logia  of  Matthew 

The  first  extensive  document  of  which  we 
know  is  the  so-called  "  Logia-Document " 


THE  LOGIA  OF  MATTHEW  21 

of  Matthew,  written  in  Aramaic  and  prob- 
ably in  the  decade  60-70  a.d.  This  account 
contained  wholly,  or  at  least  chiefly,  sayings 
of  Jesus.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  document 
referred  to  by  Bishop  Papias  of  the  second 
century  in  these  words:  "Matthew  com- 
posed the  Logia  in  the  Hebrew  language 
and  every  one  interpreted  them  as  best  he 
could." 

It  is  probably  due  to  the  incorporation  of 
much  of  this  teaching  into  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  that  the  latter  received  Matthew's 
name.  The  Gospel  of  Matthew  was  written 
in  Greek,  and  probably  the  "  Logia-Docu- 
ment "  had  already  gone  through  several 
editions  in  Greek  before  it  was  used  by 
the  author  of  the  first  Gospel.  Its  trans- 
lation into  Greek  at  a  very  early  date  would 
be  just  what  we  should  expect  from  the  prev- 
alent use  of  the  Greek  language,  even  in 
parts  of  Palestine.  The  author  of  Luke 
also  used  the  "  Logia-Document,"  or  rather 
a  Greek  translation  of  it,  and  this  explains 


22      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

many  of  the  agreements  between  the  Gos- 
pels of  Matthew  and  Luke,  which  are  largely 
agreements  in  reports  of  Jesus'  sayings. 

But  we  are  anticipating  ourselves.  Thus 
far,  we  have  simply  the  Aramaic  document 
of  Matthew,  containing  chiefly  teachings 
of  Jesus  with,  perhaps,  some  narrative  of 
events.  This  document  has  been  translated 
into  Greek  and  is  circulating  in  various  edi- 
tions, Aramaic  and  Greek,  as  Papias'  state- 
ment about  "  interpretation  "  may  suggest. 
None  of  our  present  Gospels,  which  were  all 
written  in  Greek  from  the  first,  are  yet  in 
existence. 

The  Gospels 

It  is  now  commonly  agreed  that  the  Gos- 
pel of  Mark  was  the  first  of  our  existing 
Gospels  to  be  written.  To  quote  Dr.  Mc- 
Giffert,  this  is  "  the  first  account  of  the  deeds 
of  Jesus  of  which  we  have  any  explicit 
information."  Papias'  testimony  is  again 
valuable  at  this  point.     He  says :    "  Mark, 


THE  GOSPELS  23 

having  become  the  interpreter  of  Peter, 
wrote  down  accurately  whatever  he  (Mark) 
remembered  of  the  things  said  or  done  by- 
Christ,  not  however  in  order,  for  he  had  not 
heard  the  Lord,  nor  had  he  followed  him; 
but  afterward,  as  I  said,  he  followed  Peter, 
who  adapted  his  instructions  to  the  needs  of 
those  who  heard  him,  but  without  attempt- 
ing to  give  a  connected  account  of  the  Lord's 
utterances.  So  that  Mark  did  not  err  when 
he  thus  wrote  some  things  down  as  he  re- 
membered them;  for  he  was  careful  of  one 
thing — not  to  omit  any  of  the  things  which 
he  had  heard,  nor  to  falsify  anything  in 
them." 

In  estimating  the  value  of  this  statement, 
we  must  allow  somewhat  for  Papias'  own 
views ;  but,  as  Dr.  McGiff ert  says,  "  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  general  accuracy 
of  this  report  and  there  is  no  sufficient 
ground  for  referring  Papias'  words  to  any 
other  work  than  our  second  Gospel."  We 
may  say,  then,  that  about  the  year  70  a.d. 


24      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

Mark  wrote  the  earliest  of  our  Gospels,  using 
still  earlier  fragments  and  Petrine  reminis- 
cences. Whether  Mark  did,  or  did  not, 
know  of  the  existence  of  the  "  Logia-Docu- 
ment "  is  uncertain.  At  any  rate,  he  prob- 
ably did  not  use  it,  for  his  work  is  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  things  which  Jesus  did. 

The  three  Gospels,  Matthew,  Mark,  and 
Luke,  agree  to  a  remarkable  extent  in  con- 
tent and  in  the  order  of  presentation.  It 
is  generally  accepted  that  both  later  writers, 
namely  the  authors  of  Matthew  and  of 
Luke,  knew  and  used  the  account  which 
Mark  wrote  or,  at  least,  versions  of  it. 
Hence  the  many  parallel  accounts  in  the 
three  Gospels,  which  often  agree  in  the  very 
words  used.  We  have  already  seen  that 
Matthew  and  Luke  both  made  use  of  the 
"  Logia-Document."  Hence,  most  of  the 
two  latter  gospels,  Matthew  and  Luke,  can 
be  explained  by  their  use  of  these  two  main 
sources  of  information. 

Matthew  and  Luke,  however,  both  con- 


THE  GOSPELS  25 

tain  an  amount  of  material  not  traceable  to 
either  of  these  two  sources.  This  inde- 
pendent material  doubtless  came  either  from 
some  of  the  written  collections  already 
mentioned,  or  from  oral  tradition  which,  it 
must  be  remembered,  would  not  be  seriously 
diminished  by  the  rise  of  written  accounts. 
That  some  process  like  this  must  be  posited 
is  clear  from  the  prologue  of  Luke.  This 
reads :  "  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in 
hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative  concerning  those 
matters  which  have  been  fulfilled  among  us, 
even  as  they  delivered  them  unto  us,  who 
from  the  beginning  were  eyewitnesses  and 
ministers  of  the  word,  it  seemed  good  to  me 
also,  having  traced  the  course  of  all  things 
accurately  from  the  first,  to  write  unto  thee, 
in  order,  most  excellent  Theophilus,  that 
thou  mightest  know  the  certainty  concern- 
ing the  things  wherein  thou  wast  instructed." 
Whether  Matthew  was  written  before 
Luke,  or  Luke  before  Matthew,  is  a  matter 
of  dispute.    We  may  say,  however,  that  be- 


26      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

tween  the  years  75  and  90  a.d.,  these  two 
Gospels,  compiled  in  the  manner  described, 
were  added  to  the  already  existing  Gospel 
of  Mark.  Incorporating,  as  they  did,  prac- 
tically all  of  the  "  Logia-Document,"  they 
crowded  the  latter  out  of  existence  as  an  in- 
dependent record. 

Conservative  and  liberal  critics  alike  agree 
that  the  Gospel  of  John  presents  the  life 
of  Jesus  in  a  way  peculiar  to  itself.  There 
are  radical  differences  of  opinion,  however, 
regarding  its  authorship  and  historical  re- 
liability. Even  those  who  are  most  earnest 
in  support  of  the  Johannine  authorship  and 
of  the  complete  historical  reliability  of  the 
book,  grant  that  it  is  more  subjective  than 
the  other  Gospels.  On  the  other  hand,  most 
of  those  who  reject  John's  authorship  con- 
cede that  a  certain  amount  of  new  and  in- 
dependent historical  information  is  con- 
tained in  it.  All  agree  that  it  is  the  latest 
of  our  four  Gospels  and  that  its  author, 
whether  John  or  some  other,  knew,  and  used 


THE  GOSPELS  27 

discriminatingly,  the  records  already  in  ex- 
istence. We  cannot  here  examine  the  mass 
of  complicated  evidence  necessary  to  a 
thorough  discussion  of  the  question.  I  can 
only  present  what  seems  to  me  the  most 
probable  view. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  second  century, 
about  100-110  A.D.,  a  Christian  disciple,  liv- 
ing in  western  Asia  Minor,  and  brought  up 
in  the  circle  that  seems  to  owe  its  inspira- 
tion to  the  teaching  of  the  apostle  John, 
wrote  this  treatise  on  the  life  of  Christ.  He 
wrote  it  with  particular  reference  to  the 
speculative  thought  that  dominated  that 
region,  due  to  the  intermingling  of  Greek 
and  oriental  influences.  The  work  is  pri- 
marily interpretative,  and  the  Philonic  con- 
ception of  the  "Logos"  (Word)  is  inter- 
woven with  the  historic  life  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth from  the  famous  prologue  to  the  very 
end.  Besides  the  information  drawn  from 
the  Synoptics,  there  is  probably  a  certain 
amount  of  new  and  reliable  historical  mate- 


28      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

rial  secured  by  the  author  from  some  inde- 
pendent source,  possibly  John  the  Apostle. 
The  record  of  the  deeds  and  the  discourses 
of  Jesus,  however,  is  influenced  by  the  evi- 
dent purpose  of  the  author  to  present  a  cer- 
tain view  of  the  Master.  Thus  the  historical 
reliability  of  the  book  is  distinctly  less  than 
that  of  the  other  Gospels.  Besides  its  won- 
derful inspirational  character,  it  is,  there- 
fore, chiefly  valuable  for  the  light  it  throws 
on  the  ideas  current  in  this  section  of  the 
Christian  church  at  the  time.  We  must 
therefore  depend  mainly  upon  the  three  Syn- 
optic Gospels,  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke, 
for  our  reliable  historical  information  re- 
garding the  actual  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
The  question  that  concerns  us  most,  and 
which  we  are  now  prepared  to  answer,  is 
this :  To  what  extent  are  these  sources  of  in- 
formation historically  reliable? 


RELIABILITY  OF  THE  SOURCES     29 


How  Reliable  Are  These  Sources? 

Two  answers  we  may  reject  at  once:  one 
which  says  that  all  which  is  told  us  in  the 
Gospels  is  absolutely  trustworthy;  and  the 
other  which  says  that  none  of  it  is  to  be  de- 
pended upon.  Our  answer  must  be  one  of 
discrimination,  by  which  we  recognize  that 
the  conditions  under  which  the  Gospels  arose 
laid  them  open  to  the  probability  of  error; 
and  yet  that  these  very  conditions  also 
favored  the  permanent  retention  of  a  large 
amount  of  historical  fact. 

There  are  four  questions  which  give  the 
thoughtful  man  most  concern.  These  are 
the  virgin  birth ;  the  physical  resurrection  of 
Jesus ;  the  miracles  Jesus  is  said  to  have  per- 
formed; and  finally,  the  question  to  what  ex- 
tent the  ideas  of  the  early  Christians  in- 
fluenced their  reports  of  Jesus'  teaching. 
These  are  large  problems  and  in  the  meager 
space  at  my  disposal  I  cannot  hope  to  dis- 


30      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

cuss  any  one  of  them  thoroughly.  I  may, 
however,  point  the  way  to  a  solution  and 
also  try  to  give  a  conclusion  regarding  the 
reliability  of  our  information  as  a  whole. 

The  Virgin  Birth  of  Jesus 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  accounts 
of  Jesus'  birth  appear  only  in  Matthew  and 
in  Luke  and  that  the  two  presentations  are 
not  at  all  parallel.  In  fact,  they  agree 
chiefly  in  the  one  central  reference  to  the 
birth  itself ;  the  detailed  stories  go  in  diverse 
directions.  They  may  be  complementary 
but,  at  any  rate,  they  are  not  parallel.  In 
certain  respects  they  seem  to  be  contradic- 
tory, as  in  the  genealogies  and  in  the  ac- 
counts of  the  home  of  Jesus'  parents.  Ac- 
cording to  Luke,  Joseph  and  Mary  come  to 
Bethlehem  from  Nazareth  where  they  had 
previously  lived;  according  to  Matthew, 
they  appear  to  have  taken  up  their  abode 
in  Nazareth  only  after  the  return  from 
Egypt.  I  mention  these  things  merely  as 


THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH  OF  JESUS       31 

illustrative  of  some  of  the  difficulties  the  ac- 
counts themselves  present. 

Further,  in  the  subsequent  parts  of  these 
two  Gospels,  there  is  no  reference  to  the 
wonderful  origin  of  Jesus,  and  some  pas- 
sages appear  to  make  against  it.  Mark 
does  not  even  hint  at  the  event  and,  accord- 
ing to  this  Gospel,  Jesus'  peculiar  relation 
to  the  Father  seems  to  reach  its  culmination 
at  his  baptism.  John's  explanation  of  the 
unique  relation  of  Jesus  to  God  centers  in  the 
idea  of  the  Logos,  a  highly  exalted,  heavenly 
being,  though  subordinate  to  God  himself; 
represented  as  "  becoming  flesh "  without 
any  specification  of  the  particular  manner 
in  which  this  occurred.  Paul,  as  is  well 
known,  bases  his  thesis  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ  on  the  resurrection,  and  never  refers 
to  the  virgin  birth,  even  in  the  second  chap- 
ter of  Philippians,  where  it  would  be  most 
natural.  The  author  of  Hebrews  conceives 
of  Jesus  as  "  made  perfect  through  suffer- 
ing," with  the  Cross  as  the  climax. 


32      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

Besides  these  difficulties,  inherent  in  the 
New  Testament  writings,  we  to-day  ap- 
proach the  question  with  a  difficulty  already 
raised  in  our  minds  as  a  result  of  science. 
Now,  to  be  sure,  biology  cannot  dispose  of 
this  matter  by  curtly  saying:  "  It  could  not 
have  been."  No  one  can  say:  ''It  could  not 
have  been  " ;  but  one  may  very  pertinently 
ask:  "  Was  it  a  fact?  "  And  the  historical 
evidence  would  have  to  be  very  clear  and 
strong  to  overcome  the  presumption  biology 
rolls  up  against  it. 

It  is  because  the  evidence  is  not  clear  and 
strong  that  we  must  leave  the  matter  in 
abeyance,  to  say  the  least.  Certainly  we 
should  not  stake  our  faith  on  a  fact  thus  at- 
tested. I  may  say  here  that,  as  a  matter  of 
experience,  we  do  not  stake  our  faith  on  the 
truth  of  these  particular  accounts.  Our  view 
of  Jesus,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  controlled 
more  by  what  he  was  in  his  own  personality 
and  by  what  he  became  than  by  our  conclu- 
sions regarding  the  manner  of  his  birth. 


THE   RESURRECTION  33 

And,  in  view  of  the  other  New  Testament 
data,  we  may,  perhaps,  safely  hold  that  the 
virgin  birth  was  but  one  way,  among  several, 
by  which  the  first  Christians  sought  to  ex- 
plain what  they  already  believed  from  their 
own  experience,  namely,  that  Jesus  was  the 
Son  of  God. 

The  Resurrection 

The  case  lies  differently  with  the  second 
question,  that  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
Accounts  of  this  event,  more  or  less  detailed, 
appear  in  all  four  Gospels,  in  the  Acts,  and 
in  Paul's  writings,  not  to  mention  references 
in  other  New  Testament  books.  All  agree 
in  making  this  the  starting-point  of  Chris- 
tian communal  activity.  All  agree  in  record- 
ing it  as  an  actual,  personal  experience  of 
many  disciples,  by  which  they  were  brought 
into  a  real  relation  with  Jesus  after  his  death. 
Once  for  all  let  it  be  said,  it  is  historically 
certain  that  Paul  and  the  other  disciples  sin- 
cerely believed  that  they  had  seen  the  risen 


34      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

Lord;  also,  they  were  right  in  ascribing  to 
this  experience,  whatever  it  was,  that  awak- 
ening of  faith  and  enthusiasm  out  of  which 
historical  Christianity  sprang. 

This  is,  perhaps,  enough  for  us  to  main- 
tain; but  most  of  us  cannot  rest  there.  We 
ask  with  insistence:  "  Were  the  disciples  de- 
luded? "  or,  "  Was  it  a  vision  resulting  from 
their  previous  relation  with  the  earthly  Jesus 
and  constituting  a  natural  reaction  after  the 
shock  of  his  death  had  passed?  "  "  If  it  was 
a  real,  objective  appearance  of  Jesus,  was  it 
physical  and  bodily,  or  spiritual  and  psy- 
chic? " 

The  Gospel  accounts  puzzle  us  by  their 
mixture  of  physical  and  ghostly  attributes. 
At  times,  the  writers  seem  to  be  anxious  to 
convince  their  readers  that  it  was  the  fiesh- 
and-blood  Jesus  who  had  risen;  again,  that 
he  had  passed  already  into  quite  a  different 
order  of  existence.  It  is  difficult  to  tell 
whether  the  scene  of  these  events  was  Gali- 
lee, or  Jerusalem,  or  both.    Luke  and  Acts, 


THE  RESURRECTION  35 

both  by  the  same  author,  alone  relate  the 
story  of  the  ascension,  a  necessary  event,  of 
course,  if  Jesus'  appearances  during  the 
forty  days  were  real  flesh-and- blood  appear- 
ances. 

Paul  is  our  earliest  witness  and  his  careful 
account,  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  I  Corin- 
thians, is  the  best  point  of  departure  for  a 
study  of  the  problem.  He  connects  his  own 
experience  with  that  of  the  earlier  disciples 
as  of  the  same  nature,  insisting  always  that 
it  was  a  real  appearance  of  the  Lord.  The 
accounts  of  his  conversion,  in  the  Book  of 
Acts,  also  emphasize  the  objective  reality  of 
the  event  but  seem  to  favor  a  more  spiritual 
view  than  that  offered  by  some  of  the  Gospel 
accounts.  Paul's  own  words  about  the  resur- 
rection, in  I  Corinthians,  where  he  distin- 
guishes between  the  natural  and  the  spiri- 
tual body,  also  seem  to  favor  a  less  material 
explanation.  Again,  his  whole  theological 
position  seems  to  forbid  the  idea  that  the 
physical  body  has  anything  to  do  with  the 


36      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

resurrected  state ;  in  one  place  he  goes  so  far 
as  to  say,  "  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit 
the  Kingdom  of  God." 

Here,  too,  we  approach  the  problem  with 
a  scientific  presimiption  against  the  physical 
resurrection,  at  least.  We  also  find  the  evi- 
dence somewhat  lacking  in  clearness  and  in 
strength,  though  not  so  much  as  in  the 
former  case.  We  must  face  the  further  fact 
that  the  records  of  the  lives  of  many  great 
religious  heroes  have  undergone  transforma- 
tion, surrounding  their  real  activity  with  a 
fringe  of  physical  miracle,  especially  at  the 
beginning  and  at  the  end.  Our  Gospel  ac- 
counts, as  we  have  seen,  were  not  so  care- 
fully compiled  as  to  exclude  the  possibility 
of  such  changes  creeping  into  the  Christian 
tradition. 

When  all  is  said  and  done,  however,  the 
extraordinary  fact  remains  that  Paul  and 
the  other  early  disciples  were  transformed 
by  experiences  which  they  believed  to  be  ob- 
jectively real   manifestations   of  the   risen 


THE   RESURRECTION  37 

Lord.  Science  may  cause  us  to  pause  be- 
fore the  more  materialized  accounts  of  the 
Gospels,  but  she  is,  at  present,  rather  more 
favorable  than  otherwise  to  the  possibility 
of  a  distinct,  personal,  real  and  objective 
appearance  of  Jesus'  Spirit  to  his  disciples 
after  his  death.  That  Jesus  personally  sur- 
vived his  death,  we  must  believe  or  deny  the 
heart  of  the  Christian  faith ;  that,  in  his  con- 
tinued life,  he  influences  his  followers  in  one 
way  or  another,  we  can  easily  believe:  that 
the  spiritual,  heavenly  Lord  appeared  in  a 
real  and  objective,  though  non-physical,  way 
to  the  first  disciples  and  to  Paul,  is  by  no 
means  impossible  to  hold ;  that  it  was  a  flesh- 
and-blood  appearance  seems  improbable.  In 
any  case,  we  have,  from  all  this,  added  evi- 
dence in  support  of  the  might  of  that  per- 
sonality whom  we,  following  Thomas,  may 
call  "  my  Lord  and  my  God." 


38     SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

The  Miracles 

The  question  of  the  miracles  is  usually  re- 
duced to  unreality  by  approaching  it  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  omnipotence  of  God. 
"  God  can  do  anything,"  it  is  said,  "  and 
therefore  he  did  this  particular  thing." 
Similarly,  the  argument  regarding  the  Gos- 
pel miracles  often  runs,  "  Christ,  as  the  Son 
of  God,  was  all-powerful,  hence  he  could  do 
anything;  hence  he  did  this  particular  thing." 
The  only  legitimate  form  in  which  our  diffi- 
culty may  be  phrased  is  not,  "  What  might 
have  happened?"  or,  "What  could  hap- 
pen?" but,  "What  did  actually  happen?" 
We  must,  therefore,  employ  a  fair  but  rigor- 
ous historical  method;  try  to  establish  the 
probable  facts ;  finally,  secure  the  most  satis- 
factory explanation.  We  see  at  once,  there- 
fore, that  there  is  really  little  value  in  dis- 
cussing miracles  in  general;  what  is  needed 
is  a  careful  examination  of  the  circumstances 
of  each  individual  case.    Of  course,  we  can- 


THE  MIRACLES  39 

not  do  this  here.  Still,  a  few  suggestions 
may  be  helpful. 

Physical  science  at  once  confronts  us  with 
its  laws;  its  repugnance  toward  the  irregu- 
lar; its  presupposition  that  all  could  be  ex- 
plained if  we  only  knew  enough.  Historical 
science,  also,  brings  to  our  attention  the  well- 
known  tendency  of  men  to  embellish  the  lives 
of  their  heroes  with  fanciful  tales  of  power ; 
and  in  no  sphere,  naturally,  more  than  in  re- 
ligious narrative.  Our  Gospel  narratives  did 
not  arise  in  such  a  way  as  to  guarantee  them 
against  this  tendency ;  hence  our  difficulty. 

The  practical  thing  to  do,  at  the  outset,  is 
to  divide  the  accounts  of  Jesus'  wonders  into 
classes,  according  to  their  degree  of  credi- 
bility. We  may  thus  distinguish  three 
classes,  sufficiently  distinct  from  one  another 
for  purposes  of  discussion.  Most  easy  to 
believe  are  those  relating  to  the  casting-out 
of  demons  and  the  healing  of  other  disorders 
more  or  less  connected  with  the  nervous  sys- 
tem.   To  be  sure,  the  descriptions  given  usu- 


40     SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

ally  force  us  to  guess  at  the  symptoms,  and 
still  more,  merely  to  guess  at  the  nature  of 
the  disease ;  but  the  large  number  of  cases  of 
demoniacal  possession,  and  the  other  cases 
that  suggest  nervous  or  mental  disorder,  be- 
long to  a  class  of  pathological  phenomena 
quite  familiar  to  us. 

Modern  investigation  and  experience  have 
proved  that  healing  power  is  possessed  by 
certain  persons  in  just  such  cases  and  also 
that  religious  faith  is  a  mighty  factor  in  de- 
termining the  result.  When  we  join  to  these 
statements  the  fact  that  the  accounts  of  such 
healing  activity  by  Jesus  are  so  interwoven 
with  the  record  of  his  teaching  that  we  can- 
not discredit  one  without  discrediting  the 
other,  we  can  easily  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  Jesus  actually  did  many  such  things  and 
that  these  accounts  are  essentially  true,  even 
though  descriptive  and  interpretative  details 
must  occasionally  be  left  on  one  side. 

The  second  class  of  Gospel  wonders,  ac- 
cording to  degree  of  credibility,  would  com- 


THE  MIRACLES  41 

prise  the  healing  of  diseases,  or  of  malforma- 
tions, not  directly  connected  with  the  nervous 
system ;  such  as  the  healing  of  lepers,  of  blind 
and  of  lame  men.  These  are  clearly  less  easy 
to  believe  because  we  know  from  experience 
that  such  things  are  more  in  bond  to  the 
physical  order  and  less  under  the  influence  of 
a  mental  state.  We  must  exercise  care,  how- 
ever. Remarkable  cures  in  modern  times,  at 
such  places  as  Lourdes  in  France,  have  been 
witnessed  and  tested  by  unbiased,  and  even 
antagonistic,  physicians.  In  the  light  of 
their  testimony  we  cannot  be  too  skeptical 
regarding  the  reach  and  power  of  mind,  es- 
pecially where  religious  faith  enters  in.  At 
no  time  since  the  beginnings  of  modem  sci- 
ence has  it  been  easier  to  spread  the  mantle 
of  faith  over  at  least  a  part  of  this  large  class 
of  Gospel  story.  Each  case,  however,  must 
be  sifted  and  weighed  independently  and 
conclusions  are  bound  to  vary. 

The  last  class  is  that  of  purely  physical 
wonder;  such  as  stilling  the  tempest,  walk- 


42     SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

ing  on  the  water,  turning  water  into  wine, 
and  the  raising  of  Lazarus.  It  is  to  such 
things  alone,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the 
term  miracle,  in  its  rightful  sense,  properly 
applies;  and  it  is  undoubtedly  these  that 
give  us  our  greatest  difficulty.  The  only 
way  by  which  a  modern  man  can  come  to  be- 
lieve these  things  is  by  attaining  to  such  a 
faith  in  the  unique  power  of  Jesus,  on  other 
grounds,  that  he  is  able  and  willing  to  ex- 
tend that  power  over  such  phenomena  also. 
In  so  doing,  he  would  have  to  triumph  over 
certain  very  stubborn  objections:  the  pre- 
sumption raised  by  modern  science ;  the  fre- 
quency of  such  stories  in  the  accounts  of  the 
lives  of  other  religious  leaders;  Jesus'  own 
words  regarding  "  signs  and  wonders  " ;  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  Gospels 
arose,  not  only  allowing,  but  even  favoring, 
exaggeration  and  fanciful  creation  in  this 
particular.  We  may  approach  the  problem 
with  ease  of  mind,  however,  remembering 
that  none  of  these  stories  is  really  essential 


THE  MIRACLES  48 

to  our  historical  picture  of  Jesus,  or  to  our 
fundamental  Christian  faith. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  question  of  mir- 
acle has  been  the  storm-center  of  theological 
controversy.  The  protagonists  of  miracle 
have  sensed  clearly  the  inevitable  result  of 
part,  at  least,  of  the  activity  of  their  oppo- 
nents. That  result  would  be  the  elimination 
of  the  idea  of  and  belief  in  the  supernatural 
in  any  form.  On  the  other  hand,  the  zeal  of 
many  defenders  of  the  faith  has  outrun  their 
knowledge  and  discretion.  They  have  iden- 
tified belief  in  God's  direct  and  benign  deal- 
ings with  men  with  belief  in  physical  mira- 
cle, or  with  belief  in  biblical  miracles  per  se. 
Many  of  us  are  deeply  interested  in  main- 
taining a  vital  faith  in  the  supernatural;  a 
vital  faith  in  God's  direct  and  benign  deal- 
ings with  men.  We  are  also  interested  in 
resisting  any  unjustifiable  encroachment  of 
science  upon  the  peculiar  territory  of  re- 
ligion. These  very  reasons  should  make  us 
equally  keen  to  detect  unfair  religious  en- 


44      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

croachments  upon  the  field  of  science.  They 
should  make  us  keen  to  reject  the  false  iden- 
tification of  belief  in  the  supernatural  with 
either  belief  in  physical  miracle  or  belief  in 
biblical  miracles  per  se. 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus 

The  last  historical  question  we  must  an- 
swer has  to  do  with  the  reliability  of  the  ac- 
counts of  Jesus'  teaching.  While  his  teach- 
ing would  probably  be  more  accurately  re- 
membered and  recorded  than  his  deeds,  we 
cannot  but  ask  whether  the  ideas  of  the  Jew- 
ish and  gentile  Christians,  through  whom 
the  traditions  had  to  go,  affected  the  ac- 
counts to  any  extent.  These  men  believed 
intensely  in  the  near  approach  of  the  King- 
dom, at  the  second  coming  of  Christ;  they 
believed  in  Jesus  as  the  Messiah  and  sought 
to  prove  his  messiahship  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment; they  believed  that  the  death  of  Jesus 
had  some  connection  with  salvation  from  sin 
and  wrath ;  and  they  held  the  resurrection  to 


THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  45 

be  the  central  fact  of  their  religion.  In  all 
these  things,  they  thought  and  had  to  think 
in  accordance  with  the  current  conceptions 
of  their  day. 

It  is  apparent  at  once  that,  granted 
the  existence  of  certain  views  in  the  early 
Church,  there  would  be  a  natural  tendency  to 
seek  in  Jesus*  teaching  the  justification  of 
those  views;  to  interpret  neutral  sayings  in 
a  favorable  way ;  to  pass  over  into  conscious, 
or  unconscious  modification  of  the  tradition 
itself.  The  parts  of  Jesus'  teaching  espe- 
cially open  to  such  processes  are  those  where 
Jesus  speaks  of  his  peculiar  relation  to  God ; 
those  in  which  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  is 
pictured  in  terms  very  like  the  ordinary  Jew- 
ish conception — a  Kingdom  soon  to  be  set  up 
by  wonderful,  supernatural  means  and  ac- 
companied by  signs  and  portents;  finally, 
those  passages  in  which  Jesus  foretells,  and 
even  hints  at  the  significance  of,  his  death 
and  resurrection.  In  other  words  the  prob- 
lem is:  "What  did  Jesus  teach  about  the 


46      SOURCE  OF  OUR  INFORMATION 

nature  of  the  Kingdom  of  heaven  and  its  es- 
tablishment? "  and,  "  What  did  he  teach  con- 
cerning his  own  Person?  " 

In  the  present  state  of  the  problem,  I  do 
not  see  that  we  can  make  our  answer  as  ex- 
plicit as  we  should  like.  Doubtless  in  these 
and  in  other  passages  Jesus'  words  have 
been  somewhat  altered  in  transmission.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  historical  student  and 
"  the  man  on  the  street "  will  not  go  far 
wrong  if  they  formulate,  as  the  correct  his- 
torical fact,  the  general  impression  of  Je- 
sus' teaching  which  even  a  cursory  reading 
of  the  Gospels  may  give.  In  other  words, 
whether  Jesus  himself  taught,  or  did  not 
teach,  the  speedy,  miraculous  coming  of  the 
Kingdom,  the  general  character  and  quality 
of  that  Kingdom  are  perfectly  evident  from 
a  host  of  references.  And  it  is  not  so  essen- 
tial as  many  think  to  know  what  Jesus 
taught  regarding  himself.  In  spite  of  all 
negative  criticism,  we  have  an  historical  pic- 
ture of  Jesus'  life  and  of  its  beneficent  re- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  47 

suits  which,  in  the  long  run,  will  control  our 
estimate  of  him,  regardless  of  his  own  self- 
witness. 

The  Gospels,  like  other  documents  of  the 
past,  must  be  examined  according  to  strict 
historical  methods.  So  examined,  we  find 
the  material  they  contain  varying  in  histori- 
cal value.  The  elimination  of  certain  ac- 
counts as  untrue  and  the  shelving  of  others 
as  open  to  question  do  not  deprive  the  docu- 
ments of  their  priceless  historical  worth. 
Compared  with  other  records  of  antiquity, 
they  stand  out  as  unusual  examples  of  his- 
torically reliable  writing  and  from  them  we 
can  secure  all  the  information  that  is  practi- 
cally necessary  regarding  the  life,  teaching 
and  personality  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    LIFE    OF  JESUS 

For  the  intelligent  layman  the  problems 
raised  by  biblical  criticism  become  most  acute 
when  they  concern  the  Gospels  and  the  life 
of  Christ.  Many  easily  grant  the  necessity 
and  value  of  applying  critical  tests  to  the 
Old  Testament  but  shrink  from  applying 
them  to  the  Gospels.  This  hesitation  is  nat- 
ural and  deserves  consideration  but  it  is  none 
the  less  mistaken.  The  historical  method  is 
only  "  trained  and  informed  common-sense," 
and  those  who  use  it  seek  the  truth  just  as 
we  all  seek  it  in  our  every-day  experience, 
only  less  crudely.  There  is  no  reason  why 
the  Gospels  should  be  exempt  from  such  a 
method  of  investigation;  in  fact,  there  is 

48 


THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  49 

every  reason  why  they  should  not  be.  If  it 
is  in  them  that  we  find  the  touchstone  of  our 
destiny,  then  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to 
make  sure  what  that  touchstone  really  is. 

Historical  criticism,  applied  to  the  Gos- 
pels and  to  the  life  of  Christ,  has  achieved 
results  which  are  sure  and  extensive  enough 
to  satisfy  fair-minded  men.  Extremists  of 
both  camps  will  doubtless  continue  to  wage 
war,  but  the  "  man  in  the  street  "  is  in  a  mood 
to  cry,  "  A  plague  on  both  your  houses." 
Even  when  he  does  not  know  very  much 
about  it  he  suspects  that  everything  cannot 
be  accepted;  he  also  suspects  that  the  truth 
is  not  along  the  path  of  sweeping  denial. 
These  suspicions  turn  to  convictions  when 
he  seriously  studies  the  question. 

With  this  mood  upon  us,  therefore,  let  us 
try  to  set  forth  the  probable  course  of  Jesus' 
life.  Criticism,  with  all  its  detail  of  analysis, 
comparison,  inference  and  construction,  is 
here  assumed.  Many  incidents,  true  and  im- 
portant, will  not  be  mentioned,  for  our  aim 


60  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

is  not  a  "  life  "  but  a  brief  sketch.  The  na- 
ture and  content  of  Jesus'  teaching,  as  such, 
will  not  be  discussed.  All  these  important 
matters  must  here  be  subordinated  to  the 
main  aim  which  is  to  answer  the  question, 
"  In  the  light  of  modem  criticism,  what  is 
reasonably  certain  regarding  the  general 
course  of  Jesus'  life?  " 

The  Early  Influences  Under  Which 
Jesus  Lived 

The  historian  does  not  ask,  "  How  might 
Jesus  have  been  born? "  nor,  "  How  must 
he  have  been  born?"  but  simply  "Under 
what  circumstances  was  he  born?"  Our 
sources  of  information  do  not  enable  us  to 
answer  explicitly.  It  is  not  clear  just  when 
he  was  born,  nor  where,  nor  under  what  cir- 
cumstances. It  is  certain  that  this  signifi- 
cant event  in  the  history  of  mankind  oc- 
curred near  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Herod 
the  Great,  somewhere  in  what  we  now  call 
Palestine.    It  is  not  unlikely  that  he  was  the 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  61 

son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  and  that  he  was 
born  in  Nazareth  of  Galilee. 

Concerning  the  days  of  his  youth  and 
young  manhood,  we  have  no  clear  informa- 
tion. The  story  of  his  visit  to  Jerusalem  at 
the  age  of  twelve  (Luke  2:  39-52)  may  not 
be  historical,  but  it  is  certainly  in  keeping 
with  any  inferences  that  may  fairly  be  drawn 
from  his  later  development.  If  we  are  to  re- 
construct any  picture  of  this  period  of  Jesus' 
life,  it  must  be  by  means  of  such  inference 
and  a  few  initial  facts  afforded  us  by  the 
Gospels. 

Flowing  out  of  the  past,  from  the  Old 
Testament  and  especially  from  the  prophets, 
streams  of  influence  poured  in  upon  him, 
through  the  channels  of  home  and  syna- 
gogue. In  his  reported  teaching  Jesus  men- 
tions by  name  Noah,  Solomon,  David,  Eli- 
jah, Elisha,  Jonah  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 
and  there  are  many  other  references  which 
prove  that  he  knew  the  Old  Testament 
thoroughly.    Whatever  else  we  may  or  may 


52  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

not  believe  regarding  his  conception  of  him- 
self, we  are  constrained  to  hold  that  he  con- 
sidered his  life  and  teaching  the  consumma- 
tion of  Old  Testament  prophecy,  and  that 
he  builded  consciously  on  the  basis  of  truth 
the  prophets  had  already  laid  down. 

Regarding  his  early  environment,  we 
know  that  he  had  four  brothers  and  at  least 
two  sisters,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  learned 
the  trade  of  his  father,  who  was  a  master- 
builder  in  Nazareth.  He  must  have  been  in- 
timately acquainted  with  the  simple,  homely 
things  of  life  and  cognizant  of  all  phases 
of  the  common  lot  of  the  Jews  of  his  day. 
Though  probably  not  intimate  with  the  rich, 
his  experience  was  doubtless  not  confined  to 
Nazareth  and  its  village  folk.  It  is  quite 
likely  that  our  mental  picture  should  include 
visits  to  Jerusalem  and  to  the  larger  towns 
of  Galilee  where  Greco-Roman  culture  had 
considerable  standing.  The  Jewish  scribes 
undoubtedly  influenced  him  positively  as 
well  as  negatively,  for,  while  he  rejected 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  63 

the  rabbinical  system  absolutely,  there  were 
broad-minded  exponents  of  rabbinism,  like 
Rabbi  Hillel,  whose  loftier  teaching  was  not 
unlike  that  of  Jesus  himself. 

It  is  only  fair  to  assume  that  these  he- 
reditary and  environmental  forces  imparted 
form  as  well  as  content  to  Jesus'  expanding 
thought,  but  they  do  not  explain  his  exalted 
personality.  Every  life  is  more  or  less  a 
mystery,  but  such  a  life  is  supremely  mys- 
terious because  it  is  a  supremely  new  crea- 
tion. In  ways  that  we  cannot  fathom,  Jesus 
experienced  during  these  formative  years  a 
new  relationship  to  God.  His  religious  con- 
sciousness was  maturing  along  lines  which 
constituted  a  new  departure  in  man's  re- 
ligious history.  Fused  with  this  fundamen- 
tal element  of  his  life,  there  arose  within  him 
a  new  understanding  of  man's  real  nature 
and  of  his  proper  relationship  to  his  fel- 
lowman,  a  new  ethical  consciousness.  The 
range,  quality  and  significance  of  this  new 
life  within  him  could  not  fail  to  produce  a 


54  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

peculiar  self-consciousness ;  a  realization  that 
he,  the  bearer  of  these  new  spiritual  gifts, 
stood  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  Father  and 
to  his  fellowmen. 

This  new  consciousness — religious,  ethi- 
cal, personal — whose  development  in  Jesus 
we  can  trace  historically,  though  with  ex- 
treme meagerness,  may  constitute  for  us  the 
center  and  source  of  our  belief  in  the  saving 
revelation  of  God  to  man.  Thus  "  historical 
development  "  and  "  divine  revelation  "  be- 
come, to  this  extent,  counterparts.  And 
thus,  also,  this  unique  development  of  the 
consciousness  of  Jesus  constitutes  his  divin- 
ity. The  Christ-consciousness  compels  us  to 
cry  out,  "What  is  this,  if  not  divine?" 
"  Whence  is  this,  if  not  from  God? " 

We  are  obliged  to  postulate  such  an  inner 
development  in  the  days  of  Jesus'  youth  and 
young  manhood,  else  his  later  life  becomes 
an  entire  enigma.  With  charming  charac- 
terization, the  Gospel  of  Luke  reflects  the 
similar    judgment    of    the    early    Church: 


THE  MESSIANIC  CALL  55 

"  And  the  child  grew  and  waxed  strong  in 
spirit  "  (Luke  1 :  80) .  Again:  "  And  Jesus 
advanced  in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  men"   (Luke  2:52). 

The  Call  to  the  Messianic  Life 

That  John  the  Baptist  preceded  Jesus, 
baptized  him,  and  in  more  essential  ways 
prepared  the  way  for  him,  is  certain.  That 
he  sustained  such  a  conscious  relation  to 
Jesus  as  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  John 
record  is  improbable.  John  was  largely 
the  product  of  Old  Testament  prophecy  and 
of  the  Jewish  messianic  hope  of  the  Roman 
period.  The  latter  gave  him  a  hearing,  the 
former  gave  him  his  hold.  There  is  ample 
ground  for  the  estimate  of  him  pronounced 
by  Jesus  and  treasured  by  Christians  ever 
since.  He  stirred  the  religious  and  ethical 
consciousness  of  the  people  so  that  they  were 
more  ready  for  Jesus'  appeal.  He  gathered 
around  him  a  group  of  adherents  who  were 
thus  prepared  to  become  Jesus'  chief  sup- 


56  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

porters.  He  inaugurated  the  rite  of  baptism 
which,  with  him,  differed  from  all  previously 
known  religious  lustrations  and  furnished 
the  basis  for  later  Christian  practice.  Fi- 
nally, he  baptized  Jesus  himself. 

The  nature  of  the  baptismal  accounts  and 
the  testimony  of  the  later  parts  of  the  Syn- 
optic Gospels  warrant  our  holding  that, 
at  his  baptism,  Jesus  had  an  unusual  inner 
experience  which  determined  his  whole  after- 
life. It  is  not  strange  that  his  sensitive  and 
ever-expanding  consciousness  should  have 
recognized  in  the  mission  of  John  a  pecu- 
liar significance.  The  previous  development 
in  Jesus'  inner  life  would  lead  him  to  sym- 
pathize with  John's  movement  and,  with 
others,  to  join  it  through  the  rite  of  baptism. 
This  notable  event  seems  to  have  brought  his 
developing  experience  to  a  focus  and  to 
have  given  him  divine  assurance  of  the  right- 
ness  and  reality  of  his  own  relation  to  God 
and  to  man.  It  convinced  him  that  in  his 
own  life  lay  the  hope  of  men,  and  naturally, 


THE  MESSIANIC  CALL  57 

being  a  Jew  of  his  own  time,  he  associated 
his  experience  and  work  with  the  messianic 
idea  and  began  to  think  of  himself,  probably, 
as  Messiah.  This  would  mean  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  the  chief  messenger  of  God 
to  man.  The  ultimate  validity  of  this  con- 
viction and  its  significance  for  us  depend 
upon  the  nature  and  significance  of  his  whole 
life.  That  alone  can  prove  to  us  that  his 
lofty  self -consciousness  was  justified.  Jesus 
probably  did  not  relate  these  experiences  till 
later  in  his  life,  and  then  only  to  his  closest 
friends.  If  this  is  true,  the  externalized  fea- 
tures of  the  baptismal  accounts  in  Matthew 
and  in  Luke  must  be  considered  unhistori- 
cal. 

The  gaining  of  any  new  height  of  achieve- 
ment carries  with  it  peculiar  perils,  and  the 
application  of  new  truth  to  a  work-a-day 
world  presents  subtle  temptations.  The 
temptation  which  presented  itself  to  Jesus 
at  this  time  arose  from  these  two  psycho- 
logical conditions.     The  parabolic  accounts 


58  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

given  us  by  Matthew  and  Luke  really  re- 
volve about  the  one  thought  of  compromise. 
"  Yield  the  truth  a  bit  in  order  to  get  men 
to  take  it."  That  there  was  not  merely  one 
period  of  temptation  we  should  have  to  as- 
sume, even  if  we  did  not  have  the  story  of 
the  Agony  in  the  Garden.  With  the  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  can  be  sure 
that  Jesus  was  "  one  that  hath  been  in  all 
points  tempted."  But,  doubtless,  the  glory 
of  the  baptismal  experience  was  followed  by 
a  correspondingly  searching  trial.  Old  Tes- 
tament passages  came  to  his  aid.  The  re- 
membrance of  the  recent  vision  was  fresh 
upon  him  and  girded  the  loins  of  his  will. 
These  things,  together  with  his  now  vivid 
sense  of  a  present  Father  able  to  help,  car- 
ried him  through  the  first  great  test  to  a  life 
of  victory  over  all  subsequent  temptations, 
even  those  of  the  last  excruciating  days. 
Back  of  the  accounts  lies  no  external  strug- 
gle, nor  yet  a  mere  phantom  of  early  inter- 
pretation.   It  was  a  real  but  inward  event 


CHRONOLOGY  59 

which  Jesus  probably  related  to  his  disciples 
at  a  later  time  in  parabolic  terms.  Jesus 
now  stands  at  the  threshold  of  his  life-work. 

The  Chronology  of  the  Ministry 

The  scene  and  length  of  Jesus'  activity 
cannot  be  accurately  determined.  The  in- 
sufficiency of  our  sources  of  information 
leaves  these  matters  in  the  twilight.  Whether 
his  ministry  lasted  one  year  or  three,  we  can- 
not say.  How  much  time  he  spent  in  Gali- 
lee, Perea,  Samaria  and  Judea,  respectively, 
we  cannot  tell.  It  is  certain  that  until  the 
last  days  he  was  chiefly  in  Galilee.  But  he 
spent  some  time  in  Perea  also  and  un- 
doubtedly visited  Samaria.  It  is  probable, 
also,  that  he  went  to  Judea  and  Jerusalem 
during  his  ministry,  that  is,  before  the  final 
journey  that  ended  with  his  death.  It  is 
Galilee,  however,  which  looms  largest  in  our 
records,  then  Jerusalem  in  the  last  days  and, 
to  a  lesser  degree,  Perea. 


60  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

The  Eakly  Preaching 

We  ai'e  told  that  he  began  in  Gahlee  to 
preach  the  "  gospel  of  the  Kingdom."  What 
that  "  Good  News  "  was  we  shall  not  discuss 
here.  The  effect  of  his  preaching  was, 
at  first,  a  general  impression  of  authority. 
Mark  says:  "And  they  were  astonished  at 
his  teaching;  for  he  taught  them  as  having 
authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes."  This,  of 
course,  was  not  any  external  or  official  au- 
thority. The  scribes  possessed  that  sort  of 
authority  and  they  had  been  weighed  in  the 
balance  and  found  wanting.  Nor  was  it 
merely  because  he  considered  himself  to  be 
the  Messiah.  It  was  because  he  was  what  he 
was. 

Besides  preaching,  Jesus  certainly  per- 
formed acts  of  healing,  chiefly  on  those  who 
thought  themselves  possessed  by  demons. 
He  doubtless  healed  other  disorders  and  dis- 
eases also.  The  motive  of  this  activity  was 
not  the  exhibition  of  power  for  the  sake  of 


EARLY  PREACHING  61 

proving  his  messiahship,  or  his  divinity,  as 
the  Fourth  Gospel  pictures  it.  At  this  time, 
at  least,  he  kept  to  himself  his  thoughts  of 
himself  and  he  discouraged  his  followers 
from  giving  an  undue  prominence  either  to 
his  works  or  to  himself.  The  motive  back  of 
this,  as  of  all  his  activity,  was  that  of  love, 
and  Matthew  is  right  in  quoting  in  this  con- 
nection a  passage  from  Second  Isaiah  (Isa. 
53:  4)  :  "  Himself  took  our  infirmities  and 
bare  our  sicknesses." 

The  result  of  all  this  teaching  and  of  his 
many  deeds  of  kindness,  evidencing  his  great 
love  of  his  fellows,  was  an  unbounded  popu- 
larity. He  was  not  thereby  deceived,  how- 
ever. He  knew  that  the  real  advance  of  the 
Kingdom  whose  interests  he  had  at  heart 
was  taking  place  only  slowly  and  in  varying 
degrees.  The  parable  of  the  Sower  reveals 
this.  "  Behold,  the  sower  went  forth  to  sow ; 
and  as  he  sowed,  some  seeds  fell  by  the  way- 
side, and  the  birds  came  and  devoured  them : 
and  others  fell  on  the  rocky  places,  where 


62  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

they  had  not  much  earth;  and  straightway 
they  sprang  up,  because  they  had  no  deep- 
ness of  earth;  and  when  the  sun  was  risen, 
they  were  scorched;  and  because  they  had 
no  root,  they  withered  away.  And  others 
fell  among  thorns;  and  the  thorns  grew  up 
and  choked  them;  and  others  fell  upon  the 
good  ground,  and  yielded  fruit,  some  a  hun- 
dred fold,  some  sixty,  some  thirty"  (Matt. 
13:  3-9) .  He  knew  that  the  hold  he  had  on 
the  many  was  too  slight  to  keep  them  from 
losing  interest  when  difficulties  arose. 

Early  Difficulties 

These  difficulties  soon  came,  for  Jesus' 
plain  speaking  quickly  aroused  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  rabbis  and  brought  about  the 
great  conflict  which  culminated  at  the  Cross. 
In  Mark  3:  6  we  read:  "  And  the  Pharisees 
went  forth  and  straightway  took  counsel 
with  the  Herodians  against  him,  how  they 
might  destroy  him."  John  6 :  66  accurately 
represents  the  effect  of  this  opposition  upon 


DIFFICULTIES  ARISE  63 

the  mass  of  his  following  in  words  which, 
however,  are  given  a  different  historical  set- 
ting: "  From  that  time  many  of  his  dis- 
ciples went  back  and  walked  no  more  with 
him."  Mark  7:24  describes  the  effect  on 
Jesus'  own  plans :  "  And  from  thence  he 
arose  and  went  into  the  borders  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  [that  is,  outside  the  immediate  sphere 
of  the  rabbis'  influence]  and  entered  into  an 
house,  and  would  have  no  man  know  it."  In 
short,  the  rabbis  effectually  stopped  Jesus' 
extended  public  activity  in  Galilee  and 
obliged  him  to  withdraw  to  quieter  scenes 
with  a  small  band  of  devoted  disciples. 

Jesus  now  realizes  clearly  the  necessity 
of  intensive  work  with  the  few  instead  of  ex- 
tensive work  with  the  many.  He  rightly  es- 
timates the  final  result  of  the  rabbinical  cam- 
paign against  him  and  begins  to  forecast 
the  final  issue.  Either  they  must  change,  or 
he  must  yield,  or  he  must  die.  That  they 
would  change  he  knew  to  be  most  improb- 
able, that  he  should  yield  was  impossible. 


64  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

He  must  have  seen,  therefore,  that  his  death 
was  inevitable  and  he  must  have  begun,  at 
least,  to  work  out  the  reasonableness  of  it  in 
order  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  his  idea 
of  God  and  with  his  own  relation  to  the 
Father.  Thoughts  like  that  of  Mark  10:  45 
must  have  been  in  his  mind  increasingly: 
*'  For  even  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  and  to  give 
his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  We  do  not 
know  how  far  Jesus  went  toward  a  solution 
of  the  problem  of  the  Cross  and  he  leaves  us 
free  to  form  our  own  theories  of  it.  The 
Gospels  support  the  conclusion  to  which  our 
natural  inferences  would  lead.  He  at  least 
submitted  to  his  fate,  believing  it  to  be  the 
will  of  God  and  believing,  also,  that  his 
death  would,  in  some  way,  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  Kingdom. 

For  a  time  he  kept  all  these  thoughts  to 
himself.  The  disciples  were  not  prepared  to 
understand  or  to  endure  them.  Weeks  of 
close  intercourse,  however,  in  these  days  of 


CAESAREA  PHILIPPI  66 

comparative  retirement,  must  have  enlight- 
ened their  minds  and  strengthened  their 
wills.  At  any  rate,  at  the  end  of  his  sojourn 
in  the  northern  districts,  Jesiis  seems  to  have 
broken  to  them  his  dire  forebodings.  In 
Mark,  these  teachings  do  not  appear  until 
the  time  of  Peter's  confession,  and  the  psy- 
chological situation  makes  this  view  of  the 
matter  so  fitting  that  we  may  conclude  that 
any  contrary  representation  found  in  the 
other  Gospels  is  due  to  unhistorical  transpo- 
sition or  to  later  reflection. 

The  Change  at  Caesarea  Philippi 

Peter's  confession  came  as  a  result  of  the 
close  association  with  Jesus  during  the  days 
of  retirement  in  the  north,  and  it  was  evi- 
dently of  great  significance  both  to  Jesus  and 
to  his  disciples.  The  Markan  account  (Mark 
8:27-30)  reads:  "And  Jesus  went  forth, 
and  his  disciples  into  the  villages  of  Caesarea 
Philippi:  and  on  the  way  he  asked  his  dis- 
ciples, saying  unto  them,  '  Who  do  men  say 


66  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

that  I  am  ? '  And  they  told  him,  saying, 
'John  the  Baptist;  and  others,  Ehjah;  but 
others,  one  of  the  Prophets.'  And  he  asked 
them,  '  But  who  say  ye  that  I  am  ? '  Peter 
answereth  and  saith  unto  him,  '  Thou  art 
the  Christ.'  And  he  charged  them  that  they 
should  tell  no  man  of  him."  In  John,  this 
important  event  is  given  another  historical 
setting  and  the  passage  shows  signs  of  the 
author's  peculiar  viewpoint,  but  the  essential 
content  is  the  same:  "  Upon  this  many  of 
his  disciples  went  back,  and  walked  no  more 
with  him.  Jesus  said  therefore  unto  the 
twelve,  '  Would  ye  also  go  away? '  Simon 
Peter  answered  him,  '  Lord,  to  whom  shall 
we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life, 
and  we  have  believed  and  know  that  thou  art 
the  Holy  One  of  God  '  "  (John  6:  66-69) . 

Jesus  felt  that  he  had  been  deserted  by  all 
but  the  very  few.  If  they  did  not  maintain 
their  faith  in  him,  no  one  would.  There  was 
great  risk  in  thus  forcing  the  issue  but  he 
accepted  it.     Great  souls  must  always  take 


TEACHING  REGARDING  FUTURE  67 

chances  and  cast  the  die.  The  test  was  suc- 
cessful. He  was  able  to  clinch  their  faith  in 
him,  temporarily  at  least.  This  partially 
fortified  them  against  the  difficulties  of  the 
teaching  he  was  about  to  give  them,  and 
of  the  heart-searching  experiences  through 
which  they  were  all  so  soon  to  go. 

Jesus'  Expectation  of  Death  and 
Resurrection 

According  to  Mark  and  the  other  Syn- 
optic Gospels  which  follow  Mark's  order  of 
events,  immediately  after  Peter's  confession 
Jesus  began  to  emphasize  the  suffering  and 
death  to  come.  In  Mark  8 :  31-37  we  read : 
"  And  he  began  to  teach  them,  that  the  Son 
of  Man  must  suffer  many  things,  and  be 
rejected  by  the  elders,  and  the  chief  priests, 
and  the  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  after  three 
days  rise  again.  And  he  spake  the  saying 
openly.  And  Peter  took  him,  and  began  to 
rebuke  him.  But  he,  turning  about,  and  see- 
ing his  disciples,  rebuked  Peter,  and  saith. 


68  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

*  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan;  for  thou  mind- 
est  not  the  things  of  God,  but  the  things  of 
men.'  And  he  called  unto  him  the  multitude 
with  his  disciples,  and  said  unto  them,  '  If 
any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow 
me.  For  whosoever  would  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it;  and  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for 
my  sake  and  the  gospel's  shall  save  it.  For 
what  doth  it  profit  a  man,  to  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  forfeit  his  life  ?  For  what  should 
a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  life? 

To  this  passage  we  may  add  Mark  9 :  9- 
10 :  *'  And  as  they  were  coming  down  from 
the  mountain,  he  charged  them  that  they 
should  tell  no  man  what  things  they  had  seen, 
save  when  the  Son  of  Man  should  have  risen 
again  from  the  dead.  And  they  kept  the 
saying,  questioning  among  themselves  what 
the  rising  again  from  the  dead  should  mean." 
Also,  Mark  9:31-32:  "For  he  taught  his 
disciples,  and  said  unto  them,  '  The  Son  of 
Man  is  delivered  up  into  the  hands  of  men. 


TEACHING  REGARDING  FUTURE    69 

and  they  shall  kill  him ;  and  when  he  is  killed, 
after  three  days  he  shall  rise  again.'  "  And 
Mark  10:33-34:  "Behold,  we  go  up  to 
Jerusalem;  and  the  Son  of  Man  shall  be  de- 
livered unto  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes ; 
and  they  shall  condemn  him  to  death,  and 
shall  deliver  him  unto  the  Gentiles :  and  they 
shall  mock  him,  and  shall  spit  upon  him, 
and  shall  scourge  him,  and  shall  killJiim;  and 
after  three  days  he  shall  rise  again."  And 
finally,  Mark  10:  45,  already  quoted:  "  For 
the  Son  of  Man  also  came  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many." 

We  must  bear  in  mind,  in  using  these 
passages,  the  probability  of  their  reflecting 
in  part  the  views  of  a  later  time  when  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  had  acquired 
paramount  importance  and  a  more  definite 
significance.  It  seems  to  me,  however,  that 
we  may  fairly  conclude  from  them  that 
Jesus  spoke  of  his  death  at  this  time  and 
that  he  considered  it  God's  will  for  him. 


70  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

The  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  would 
help  him  reach  the  conclusion  that  suffering 
belonged  to  the  Messiah's  part.  His  death 
would  thus  present  itself  to  him  as  the  logi- 
cal outcome,  under  the  circumstances,  of  his 
life-principle  of  love  and  service  and  also, 
probably,  as  a  means  of  blessing  to  many. 
We  should  have  to  assume  the  rise  in  his 
mind  of  thoughts  like  these,  had  we  no  ref- 
erences at  all  purporting  to  give  his  direct 
teaching. 

Similarly,  with  regard  to  the  specific  say- 
ings referring  to  his  resurrection,  it  may  be 
that  these  verses  merely  record  what,  in  the 
light  of  their  experiences,  later  disciples 
thought  he  must  have  said.  Doubtless  the 
definiteness  of  some  of  the  statements  is  due 
to  this  fact.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  Jesus* 
own  thought  must  have  run  out  beyond  his 
death.  His  faith  in  the  Father  and  in  the 
supreme  worth  of  his  own  life  and  mission 
would  not  allow  him  to  stop  there.  Further- 
more, it  is  inconceivable  that  he  would  im- 


TEACHING  REGARDING  FUTURE     71 

part  to  his  followers  his  innermost  fears  re- 
garding the  end  of  his  life  and  work  without 
communicating  to  them  also  whatever  he 
had  within  him  of  faith,  hope  and  encour- 
agement. We  may  not  know  just  what  he 
thought  or  said.  But  that  he  himself  antic- 
ipated his  death,  without  anticipating  any- 
thing more,  is  out  of  keeping  with  what  we 
know  of  him.  And  that  he  consciously  led 
his  disciples  to  anticipate  his  death,  without 
leading  them  any  further  into  paths  of 
faith  and  hope,  is  equally  out  of  keeping. 

In  John  14:16-20  we  read:  "And  I 
will  pray  the  Father  and  he  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter,  that  he  may  be  with  you 
forever,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth:  whom  the 
world  cannot  receive;  for  it  beholdeth  him 
not,  neither  knoweth  him :  ye  know  him :  for 
he  abideth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you.  I 
will  not  leave  you  desolate:  I  come  unto 
you.  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  world  be- 
holdeth me  no  more;  but  ye  behold  me: 
because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also.     In  that 


72  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  my  Father, 
and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you."  These  words  of 
the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  represent 
for  me  what  must  actually  have  been  the 
essential  trend  of  Jesus'  thought  at  this  time 
and,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  what  he 
himself  thought  he  must,  under  the  circum- 
stances, have  communicated  to  his  disciples 
in  some  form  or  other. 

Back  of  the  transfiguration  story,  in  spite 
of  its  evident  embellishments,  there  may  lie 
a  real  experience  of  an  exalted  nature — 
an  experience  which  Jesus  shared  with  his 
closest  friends,  growing  out  of  the  kind 
of  conversation  that  was  now  uppermost 
with  them.  The  accounts  which  we  have  of 
the  event  connect  it  with  this  point  in  Jesus' 
life,  and  with  the  very  circle  of  thought  we 
have  just  been  considering.  Such  an  ex- 
perience must  have  led  to  a  further  strength- 
ening of  the  faith  of  the  three  disciples 
immediately  concerned — Peter,  James,  and 
John.    If  these  inferences  are  at  all  warrant- 


JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM  73 

able,  we  have  here  another  example  of  the 
intensive  effort  Jesus  now  felt  called  upon 
to  put  forth  that  his  work  might  survive  his 
impending  death. 

The  Last  Journey  to  Jerusalem 

With  such  heartening  memories  Jesus 
"  sets  his  face  toward  Jerusalem."  His  state 
of  mind  seems  to  have  been  one  of  exalta- 
tion tinged,  however,  with  natural  forebod- 
ings. In  Mark  10:  32  we  read:  "  And  they 
were  on  the  way,  going  up  to  Jerusalem; 
and  Jesus  was  going  before  them:  and  they 
were  amazed;  and  they  that  followed  were 
afraid.  And  he  took  again  the  twelve,  and 
began  to  tell  them  the  things  that  were  to 
happen  unto  him."  Here  we  see  Jesus, 
brave,  hopeful  and  even  triumphant,  march- 
ing through  Perea  beyond  Jordan,  with 
Jerusalem  as  his  goal,  "  knowing  the  things 
that  should  befall  him  there." 

Mark,  our  earliest  source,  indicates  that 


74  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

in  this  brief  period  before  the  end,  Jesus 
again  engaged  in  more  public  activity.  Mark 
10:1  reads:  "And  he  arose  from  thence, 
and  Cometh  into  the  borders  of  Judea  and 
beyond  the  Jordan:  and  multitudes  come 
together  unto  him  again;  and,  as  he  was 
wont,  he  taught  them  again."  Mark  as- 
signs to  this  period  a  considerable  amount 
of  undoubtedly  genuine  teaching.  Luke 
gathers  together  at  this  point  a  much  larger 
amount  of  Jesus'  teaching,  drawn  partly 
from  the  "  Logia-Document "  and  partly 
from  his  own  independent  sources  ( cf .  Luke, 
chaps.  9-18).  Luke's  arrangement  here  is 
undoubtedly  topical  because  Matthew  gives 
many  parallels  to  these  sections  of  Luke, 
but  places  them  in  different  historical  set- 
tings. The  common  idea  of  Jesus'  "  Perean 
ministry,"  so-called,  is  drawn  from  Luke 
and  therefore  needs  to  be  modified  by  the 
considerations  just  mentioned;  but,  it  is 
undoubtedly  a  fact  that  Jesus  repeated  in 
Perea,  though  in  smaller  degree,  the  public 


THE  LAST  WEEK  76 

activity  which  marked  his  earher  work  in 
Galilee. 

The  Last  Week  in  Jerusalem 

A  few  short  crowded  days  in  the  Jew- 
ish capital,  and  the  machinations  of  the  lead- 
ers of  his  people  were  crowned  with  success. 
Jesus  was  tried,  tortured  and  executed. 
Out  of  the  many  events  and  voluminous 
teaching  of  these  last  days  many  of  our  most 
precious  Gospel  traditions  come.  To  be 
sure,  accretions  have  crept  into  the  teach- 
ing and  incidents  have  been  added  without 
warrant.  A  simple  parting-meal  has  been 
started  on  its  course  of  transformation  into 
a  miraculous  mystery,  and  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  Jesus  is  represented  discoursing  in 
the  terms  of  Alexandrian  philosophy.  In 
general,  however,  the  tradition  is  sound  and 
we  get  a  more  detailed  picture  of  Jesus  here 
than  at  any  other  point  in  his  life.  To  re- 
produce this  picture  would  transgress  the 
limits  of  our  space  and  is  hardly  necessary. 


76  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

A  few  illustrations  will  bring  to  mind  the 
exceptional  quantity  and  quality  of  Jesus' 
activity  in  these  days. 

In  spite  of  the  plots  of  his  enemies,  he 
received  homage  in  private  from  individuals, 
and  in  public  from  the  many,  especially 
from  the  provincials  thi-onging  to  the  Pass- 
over. The  story  of  the  "  Anointing  at  Beth- 
any "  and  the  main  facts  of  the  "  Triumphal 
Entry  "  are  undoubtedly  historical.  After 
his  Galilean  and  Perean  triumphs,  he  would 
naturally  be  the  center  of  attention  at  the 
great  feast  and  would  arouse  enthusiasm 
among  the  many  representatives  from  these 
provinces.  The  latter  story  has  doubtless 
been  embellished,  however,  to  make  it  fit 
into  Old  Testament  prophecy.  Similarly, 
the  story  of  the  "  Cursing  of  the  Fig  Tree  " 
is  probably  an  example  of  the  development 
of  a  parable  into  a  miracle. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  the 
last  week  of  Jesus'  life  is  his  direct  clash 
with  the  authorities.    We  feel  the  thrill  that 


THE  LAST  WEEK  77 

manifestations  of  righteous  indignation  al- 
ways cause,  and  we  get  a  new  conception 
of  the  way  in  which  virihty  and  loving-kind- 
ness may  be  united  in  the  harmony  of  a 
single  ideal.  According  to  the  Gospel  of 
John,  Jesus  began  his  work  with  the  so- 
called  "  Cleansing  of  the  Temple,"  and  we 
therefore  usually  assume  that  there  were  two 
occasions  on  which  Jesus  performed  this  act. 
Undoubtedly  the  Synoptics  are  right  in 
placing  this  striking  event  at  the  end  of 
Jesus'  life,  and  the  author  of  John  has  trans- 
ferred it  to  the  beginning  for  some  reason  of 
his  own. 

The  questions  put  to  Jesus  by  the  Jewish 
leaders  are  just  what  we  should  expect  from 
the  rabbis  in  their  effort  to  secure  some  basis 
for  a  valid  charge  against  the  Galilean.  The 
only  result  of  their  questions  has  been  to 
provide  us  with  a  permanent  proof  not  only 
of  Jesus'  superior  moral  insight  but  also  of 
his  great  intellectual  acumen.  These  ques- 
tions and  answers  paved  the  way  naturally 


78  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

for  a  final  invective  on  the  part  of  Jesus 
against  rabbinism  and  against  its  repre- 
sentatives. Seldom  have  men  been  so  scath- 
ingly and  yet  so  justly  excoriated.  "  Woe 
unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites! 
for  ye  are  like  unto  whited  sepulchers,  which 
outwardly  appear  beautiful,  but  inwardly 
are  full  of  dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  un- 
cleanness.  Even  so  ye  also  appear  righteous 
unto  men,  but  inwardly  ye  are  full  of  hy- 
pocrisy and  iniquity  "  (Matt.  23:  27-28). 

How  much  of  the  reported  discourses 
about  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  (Matt., 
chap.  24;  Mark,  chap.  13;  Luke,  chap.  21) 
comes  from  Jesus,  and  how  much  from  early 
Christian  tradition,  is  impossible  to  say. 
Doubtless  Jesus  discussed  these  subjects  at 
length  with  his  disciples,  especially  at  the 
close  of  his  life,  but  we  cannot  be  sure  of  the 
nature  of  these  discussions. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  Fourth  Gosperc 
account  of  the  "  Last  Supper  "  were  more 
true  to  fact  than  the  accounts  given  by  the 


THE  LAST  WEEK  79 

other  three.  John  relates  the  circumstances 
very  simply  and  joins  with  the  account  of 
the  Supper  itself  that  of  the  symbolic  act  of 
"  Jesus  Washing  the  Disciples'  Feet."  The 
Synoptics  append  to  the  record  of  the 
customary  meal,  with  its  discussion  of  "  the 
Betrayal,"  an  account  of  the  special  insti- 
tution by  Jesus  of  an  unusual  rite,  symbolic 
of  his  death  and  of  its  religious  significance. 
The  Synoptic  account  is  probably  influenced 
by  later  ideas,  but  in  any  case  the  last  meal 
of  the  disciples  with  Jesus  must  have  been 
impressive  and  significant  both  to  them  and 
to  him. 

But  we  must  not  follow  the  details  fur- 
ther. Jesus  maintained  his  cause  to  the 
very  end,  battling  in  virile  fashion  against 
the  enemies  from  without  and  against  those 
"  that  were  of  his  own  household."  His  fol- 
lowers were  evidently  always  in  his  thought 
and  he  spent  much  time  preparing  them  for 
the  inevitable  outcome.  He  himself  turned 
continually  to  the  Father  in  the  spirit  of  the 


80  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

garden  prayer,  "  Not  my  will,  but  thine,  be 
done."  Jesus'  death  has  been  theologized 
out  of  all  true  perspective.  The  unalterable 
fact  that  it  was  the  climax  of  his  life  of  love 
and  service  has  thereby  been  attested,  but 
often  in  unmeaning,  if  not  actually  illogical 
and  anti-ethical,  terms.  We  do  not  have  to 
be  trained  theologians  to  understand  either 
the  necessity  of  the  Cross  or  its  main  signifi- 
cance. The  essential  values  of  this  supreme 
event  lie  near  the  surface,  but  they  also  run 
down  deep  into  the  very  heart  of  the  mean- 
ing of  hfe. 

The  Resurrection 

We  must  now  endeavor  to  estimate  the 
significance  of  the  resurrection  stories.  The 
signs  and  portents,  the  empty  grave,  the  defi- 
nite period  of  three  days,  the  physical  ap- 
pearances, the  forty-day  period  and  the  as- 
cension— all  these  phenomena  are  definitely 
bound  up  with  a  physical  explanation  of  the 
resurrection.     As  we  have  seen,  the  diffi- 


THE  RESURRECTION  81 

culties  in  the  way  of  this  explanation  point 
to  the  improbability  of  its  being  the  true 
one.  If  so,  then  we  have  to  choose  between 
two  other  theories.  The  first  is  that  of  an 
objectively  real,  but  non-physical,  mani- 
festation of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  to  the  disci- 
ples. This  theory  is  comparatively  easy  to 
grasp,  provided  one  grants  the  possibility 
of  such  an  objective,  spiritual  appearance, 
but  it  does  not  allow  much  room  for  the 
psychological  element  which  many  feel  must 
always  be  given  a  prominent  place  in  the 
explanation  of  any  religious  phenomenon. 
However,  such  activities  as  those  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  are  symp- 
tomatic of  present-day  open-mindedness  in 
this  direction,  even  in  scientific  circles.  In 
fact,  there  is  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  the  modern  man  who  inclines  to  the 
acceptance  of  this  explanation.  On  the  con- 
trary, certain  tendencies  in  modern  psychol- 
ogy and  philosophy  pave  the  way  to  such  a 
belief. 


82  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

The  second  theory  would  necessitate  an 
explanation  something  like  this:  Jesus'  im- 
partation  of  spiritual  life  to  his  followers, 
especially  to  the  receptive  and  impression- 
able Peter,  was  too  gi'eat  to  be  wiped  out 
even  by  so  paralyzing  and  unintelligible  a 
calamity  as  his  death.  Certain  words  of 
Jesus,  conveying  hope  at  a  time  when  all 
seemed  dark,  would  linger  in  the  mind.  It 
may  also  be  that  these  words  expressed  a 
belief  in  a  speedy  return  and  establishment 
of  the  Kingdom.  After  the  first  despair,  due 
to  Jesus'  departure,  the  new  life  they  pos- 
sessed from  him  was  brought  to  a  focus 
by  their  return  to  Galilee,  and  possibly,  also, 
by  definite  forecasts  of  their  Master.  It  then 
produced  in  these  men,  of  an  age,  race  and 
clime  predisposing  them  to  such  things,  and 
fijst  of  all  in  Peter,  whose  individual  tem- 
perament was  most  favorable  to  such  impres- 
sions, a  series  of  "  visions."  These  were  in- 
ner, spiritual  experiences,  easily  propagated 
from  individual  to  individual,  and  from  in- 


THE  RESURRECTION  83 

dividuals  to  groups.  Thus  they  spread, 
probably  from  Peter  first,  as  the  records  all 
suggest,  and  in  every  case  colored,  most  nat- 
urally, by  the  content  of  Jesus'  personality 
by  which  their  lives  were  dominated. 

On  either  of  these  two  theories,  the  rela- 
tion of  our  existing  Gospel  accounts  of  the 
resurrection  to  the  original  experience  would 
be  the  same.  The  actual  event,  whatever  it 
was,  little  by  little  became  materialized  in 
the  progress  of  the  tradition  until  the  narra- 
tives became  what  they  now  are. 

For  a  modern  man,  the  choice  appears  to 
lie  between  these  two  views.  In  either  case, 
the  resurrection  accounts  prove  the  actual 
existence  of  a  spiritual  life  and  power  which 
enabled  men  to  brave  danger  and  death  in 
an  unpopular  cause,  for  an  unpopular  per- 
son ;  a  spiritual  life  and  power  which,  on  sure 
historical  grounds,  we  can  connect  with  the 
life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth;  a  spiritual  life 
and  power  which,  through  these  men,  has 
come  down  through  the  centuries  in  ever- 


84  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

increasing  fulness,  purity  and  beneficence. 
These  facts  must  be  interpreted  in  accor- 
dance with  the  thought-atmosphere  of  our 
age,  but  they  must  be  interpreted,  and  no 
interpretation  is  true  to  fact  which  does  not 
recognize  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  in  the  life  of  the  world.  Thus, 
instead  of  a  supposedly  objective  physical 
fact,  supporting  a  structure  full  of  difficult 
dogmas,  we  get  an  objective,  or  at  least 
equally  real,  spiritual  fact — a  mass  of  such 
facts,  indeed — which  goes  to  support  the 
reality  and  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  life 
of  Jesus.  Through  him  we  may  rise  to 
belief  in  a  God,  of  like-minded  love  and 
righteousness,  whose  hand  directs  the  desti- 
ny of  the  whole  universe  of  men  and  things. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

So  much  is  made  of  the  supposed  insuffi- 
ciency and  uncertainty  of  the  Gospels  that 
it  is  well  to  lay  this  bogy  to  rest  at  once,  so 
far  as  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  concerned. 
Of  course,  we  should  like  to  have  a  much 
fuller  record,  but  that  is  no  reason  for  shut- 
ting our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  we  have,  never- 
theless, a  fairly  large  amount  of  reported 
teaching.  But  is  it  credibly  reported  ?  This 
question  raises  serious  problems  into  which 
we  cannot  enter  here.  But  the  existence  of 
these  problems  need  not  paralyze  our  prac- 
tical judgment.  We  may  leave  much  in 
doubt  without  depriving  ourselves  of  the  as- 
surance that  we  do  know,  or  can  know,  the 

86 


86  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

main  lines  along  which  Jesus'  thought  ran. 
To  be  sure,  Jesus  spoke  in  Aramaic  and  all 
the  Gospels  were  written  in  Greek.  Further, 
the  accounts  of  what  he  said  have  certainly 
been  influenced  by  the  minds  through  which 
the  stream  of  tradition  flowed.  But  let  all 
be  said  that  can  be  said,  and  we  may  still 
maintain  that  we  know  what  Jesus  taught. 

Method  of  Interpretation 

A  few  words  about  interpretation.  In 
interpreting  the  Bible  many  mistakes  are 
made  and  many  errors  arise.  Jesus'  teach- 
ing has  not  been  exempt  from  these  things. 
It  is  so  easy  to  see  in  a  word  what  we  wish 
to  see  in  it  and  it  is  so  comfortable  to  insert 
our  pet  convictions  in  a  verse,  surrepti- 
tiously, and  then  to  draw  them  out  again 
triumphantly,  with  an  air  of  scientific  dis- 
covery and  of  divine  authority.  In  inter- 
preting the  teaching  of  Jesus  we  must  not 
change  parables  into  allegories,  seeking  all 
sorts  of  complicated  meanings  where  usu- 


METHOD  OF  INTERPRETATION     87 

ally  one  gi'eat  truth  is  to  be  found.  We 
must  remember  that  "  the  words  of  Jesus 
are  important,  not  as  precepts,  but  as  in- 
dicative of  principles,"  for  he  was  not  inter- 
ested in  regulating  the  outward  life  but  in 
filling  the  soul  with  divine  enthusiasm.  In 
fine,  we  must  always  be  alive  to  the  underly- 
ing principles  and  then  regard  them  as  rev- 
elations of  Jesus'  own  mind;  for  he  was 
not  so  much  a  teacher  of  spiritual  life  as  a 
revealer  of  it.  Thus  Paul  was  quite  right  in 
emphasizing  the  spirit  against  the  letter,  and 
in  this  emphasis  he  followed  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  Master. 

The  Inward  Emphasis  of  Jesus'  Teach- 
ing AND  His  Attitude  Toward  the 
Law 

Matthew  Arnold,  with  his  usual  keenness 
of  insight,  realized  that  a  dominant  note  in 
Jesus'  words  was  that  of  inwardness.  It 
does  not  require  the  insight  of  a  Matthew 
Arnold  to  discern  this,  however.    The  most 


88  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

striking  thing  about  Christianity  has  been 
its  unerring  tendency  to  lay  its  finger  on  the 
heart;  on  the  thoughts,  motives,  impulses 
and  purposes  of  men ;  on  all  the  inner  cross- 
and  counter-currents  that  go  to  make  up 
our  real  life  in  the  everyday  world. 

This  element  of  Jesus'  teaching  most  nat- 
urally appears  in  strongest  light  where  the 
Jewish  law  is  discussed.  We  are  prone  to 
think  of  Paul  as  the  great  protagonist  of 
faith,  the  spirit  and  the  inner  life,  against 
dead  works,  the  mere  letter  of  life  and  the 
externalism  of  legalism.  In  this  we  are 
right.  Paul's  fight  meant  the  possibility  of 
full  freedom  for  the  Christian  movement 
and  his  victory  meant  its  realization.  But 
we  must  remember  that  Paul  was  merely 
the  captain  who  led  the  last  assault  in  a 
campaign  that  had  been  conducted,  indeed, 
for  centuries ;  from  the  skirmishes  of  the  He- 
brew prophets  to  the  fundamental  plan  of 
attack  revealed  in  the  Gospels  by  the  great- 
est of  spiritual  commanders. 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  LAW      89 

Jesus'  attitude  toward  the  law  was  pro- 
phetic, rather  than  scribal.  That  is,  it  was 
vital  rather  than  formal,  inward  rather  than 
outward,  spiritual  rather  than  literal.  There 
is  nothing  more  stirring  or  more  searching 
in  the  whole  Bible,  nay,  in  all  literature, 
than  the  series  of  antithetic  passages  in  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  beginning  in  each 
case,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to 
them  of  old  time,"  and  ending  with,  "  But 
I  say  unto  you."  There  is  a  sureness  of  aim 
here  that  begets  confidence  and  wins  ad- 
miration, both  because  of  that  which  the 
shots  destroy  and  that  which  they  spare  and 
defend.  One  is  tempted  to  quote  at  length 
but  a  few  verses  must  suffice:  "Ye  have 
heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time. 
Thou  shalt  not  kill ;  and  whosoever  shall  kill 
shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment;  but  I 
say  unto  you  that  every  one  who  is  angry 
with  his  brother  shall  be  in  danger  of  the 

judgment Ye  have  heard  that  it  was 

said,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery;  but  I 


90  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

say  unto  you  that  every  one  that  looketh  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her  hath  committed 
adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart.^" 

It  may  be  that  our  usual  idea  of  Paul,  as 
a  more  outspoken  antagonist  of  the  law  than 
Jesus,  is  due  to  his  methods  of  presentation. 
However,  to  Paul  the  law  was  still  "  a  slave 
to  bring  us  unto  Christ."  Jesus,  too,  seems 
to  have  been  accustomed  to  send  inquirers 
back  to  the  law,  bidding  them  seek  light 
from  it.  But,  close  as  these  two  ideas  are, 
there  is  a  difference.  For  Paul,  the  work  of 
the  law  was  done.  It  was  all  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Christ  had  ended  it.  The  present  was 
the  age  of  the  Spirit  and  there  was  a  clear 
break  between  the  two,  of  time  as  well  as 

*Matt.  5:21-24,  27-28,  38-48.  In  this  article  I  shall 
use,  of  course,  only  such  teaching  of  Jesus  as  I  consider 
genuine.  One  or  two  reservations  will  be  indicated  later. 
I  may  say,  further,  that  the  teaching  selected,  minor  de- 
tails aside,  is  not  seriously  questioned  by  those  critics 
whose  leadership  is  worthy  of  acceptance.  The  genuine 
teaching  of  Jesus  far  exceeds,  in  amount,  that  utilized 
here.  Limits  of  space  com.pel  a  selection  but  I  have  tried 
to  make  the  selection  thoroughly  representative. 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  LAW      91 

of  quality.  Jesus,  on  the  contrary,  seemed 
to  think  of  the  law  not  as  superseded  but  as 
outgrowing  itself,  so  to  speak.  In  it  were 
continually  to  be  found  the  germinating 
seeds  of  a  new  life  that  was  to  fulfil  the  law. 
"  Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law 
or  the  prophets:  I  came  not  to  destroy  but 
to  fulfil.  For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  till 
heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or  one 
tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  away  from  the 
law,  till  all  things  be  accomplished."  * 

This  is  a  strong  passage  and  not  with- 
out disquieting  suggestions.  The  "  jot  and 
tittle  "  phraseology  sounds  altogether  rab- 
binical, and  it  may  be  that  we  have  here  the 
work  of  some  misguided  Jewish  Christian, 
anxious  to  save  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Master. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  this  is  the  case.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  one  of  the  guiding  prin- 
ciples of  a  correct  interpretation  of  Jesus' 
teaching  is  a  recognition  of  his  tendency  to 
push  a  truth  to  the  extreme,  in  order  to 

»Matt.  5:17-20. 


92  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

get  it  out  into  the  open,  as  it  were,  free 
from  the  inevitable  background  of  expedi- 
ency. The  famous  "  turn  the  cheek  "  pas- 
sage is  an  example  of  this  and  it  may  be 
that  the  present  passage  is  another.  This 
does  not  seem  at  all  likely,  however,  for 
the  Jews  did  not  need  to  be  harangued  into 
legalism,  nor  was  Jesus  at  all  interested  in 
that  sort  of  thing.  The  meaning  may  possi- 
bly be  that  the  law  contains  the  gist  of  the 
whole  matter,  therefore  we  cannot  think  of 
its  passing  away  any  more  than  of  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  eternal  truth  of  which  it 
is  the  bearer. 

But  we  do  not  have  to  base  on  such  dis- 
putable ground  the  thesis  that  Jesus  sought 
and  found,  inside  the  law  itself,  the  interpre- 
tative principle  of  the  new  life.  In  Matthew 
and  in  Luke  we  have  parallel  acounts  of  the 
famous  question  of  the  lawyer.  "  Teacher, 
what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?  And 
he  said  unto  him.  What  is  written  in  the 
law?  how  readest  thou?    And  he  answering 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  LAW      93 

said,  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind ;  and 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  And  he  said  unto 
him,  Thou  hast  answered  right:  this  do  and 
thou  shalt  live." 

The  lawyer's  answer  to  his  own  question 
was  taken  partly  from  Deuteronomy  and 
partly  from  Leviticus,  and  Jesus  stamped 
it  with  the  seal  of  his  approval.^  On  an- 
other occasion  he  expressed  the  opinion  that 
"  every  scribe  who  hath  been  made  a  disciple 
to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  a  man 
that  is  a  householder,  who  bringeth  forth 
out  of  his  treasure  things  new  and  old."  ^  In 
other  words,  the  law  is  far  from  discarded. 
It  is  God's  law  and  salvation  is  in  it.  "  This 
do  and  thou  shalt  live."  But  the  law  must 
be  interpreted  according  to  a  principle  to 
be  found  within  itself,  a  principle  that  has 

»Luke   10:25-28;   Matt.   22:34-40;   Deut  6:4;   Lev. 
19:17-18. 
*  Matt  13 :  52. 


94  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

to  do  with  the  heart  and  the  motives.  A 
sifting  process  results  by  which  the  wheat  of 
the  permanent  is  separated  from  the  tem- 
porary Jewish  chaff. 

Jesus  did  not  content  himself  with  mere 
enunciation  of  the  principle,  leaving  the  ap- 
plication to  us.  He  applied  it  rigorously 
to  the  contemporaneous  perversions  which 
characterized  Pharisaism,  in  language  which 
has  become  classic.  Indeed,  orations  of  in- 
vective might  quite  as  reasonably  be  called 
"  rabbinics  "  as  "  philippics."  When  the 
Pharisees  were  quibbling  about  the  relation 
of  hand-washing  to  religion,  Jesus  uttered 
the  trenchant  saying,  "  There  is  nothing 
from  without  the  man,  that  going  into  him 
can  defile  him ;  but  the  things  which  proceed 
out  of  the  man  are  those  that  defile  the 
man."  ^  Elsewhere  scorn  is  heaped  upon 
rabbinical  exaggeration  and  hypocrisy  in 
words  of  cutting  irony  and  indignant  emo- 

*  Mark  7 : 1-23. 


CHRISTIAN  INWARDNESS  95 

tion.  "  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, hypocrites!  for  ye  cleanse  the  outside 
of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  but  within  they 
are  full  from  extortion  and  excess.  Thou 
blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first  the  inside  of 
the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  that  the  outside 
thereof  may  become  clean  also."  ^ 

This  invective  is  directed  against  rabbini- 
cal refinements  of  the  law,  but  it  is  clear  that 
Jesus  everywhere  subordinates  the  legal  and 
ceremonial  elements  of  the  original  law  to 
his  inner  principle  and  practically  excludes 
them  from  consideration.  Thus  we  see  that 
Matthew  Arnold  was  right  in  holding  up  in- 
wardness as  a  fundamental  mark  of  Chris- 
tian teaching. 

Christian  Inwardness 

But  mere  inwardness  is,  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, a  colorless  term;  a  formal  descrip- 
tion without   essential  content.     We  now 

>  Matt.  23. 


96  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

know  where  to  look,  but  we  do  not  yet  know 
what  to  look  for.  To  be  sure,  when  we 
learn  that  righteousness  is  a  thing  of  the 
heart  and  not  a  matter  of  washing  pots,  pans, 
cups  and  platters,  we  have  made  progress. 
This  progress  carries  us  beyond  and  above 
the  boggy  levels  of  Pharisaism,  but  it  does 
not  bring  us  to  the  fork  of  the  road  where 
the  peculiarly  Christian  path  leads  out.  In 
other  words,  there  are  kinds  of  inwardness 
not  distinctively  Christian,  and  thus  we  see 
that  Matthew  Arnold's  criterion  is  only  a 
tentative  and  partial  one,  not  final.  "  Out 
of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life,"  no  matter 
what  those  issues  may  be.  Envy  is  quite  as 
inward  as  benevolence.  Hatred  is  quite  as 
inward  as  love.  Lust  is  just  as  much  a  thing 
of  the  heart  as  purity.  "  That  which  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  man,  that  defileth  the  man. 
For  from  within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men, 
evil  thoughts  proceed,  fornications,  thefts, 
murders,  adulteries,  covetings,  wickednesses, 
deceit,  lasciviousness,  an  evil  eye,  railing. 


CHRISTIAN  INWARDNESS  97 

pride,  foolishness:  all  these  evil  things  pro- 
ceed from  within,  and  defile  the  man."  ^  Be- 
sides, Christianity  is  not  the  only  religion 
that  possesses  this  trait  of  inwardness.  Both 
Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  are  essentially 
inward  in  their  emphasis. 

No,  we  must  delve  deeper  into  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  if  we  are  to  fathom  its  unique 
depths.  Can  we  find  there  distinctive  mean- 
ings which  will  mark  off  the  Christian  life  of 
the  spirit  from  other  kinds  of  spiritual  life? 
Can  we  discern  in  his  teaching  thoughts  that 
may  be  described  as  characteristically  Chris- 
tian? In  short,  is  there  a  peculiarly  Chris- 
tian inwardness,  and  if  so,  what  is  it?  To 
find  what  we  seek  we  must  answer  the  ques- 
tions, "  What  does  Jesus  teach  regarding 
God?  "  and,  "  What  does  he  teach  concern- 
ing man  ?  "  We  may  link  to  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  queries  all  others  that  might 
conceivably  be  asked,  such  as  those  concern- 

*  Mark  7 :  20-23 ;  vss.  21-23  seem  to  be  an  expansion  by 
the  evangelist  of  tlie  thought  of  Jesus  In  vs.  20. 


98  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

ing  sin,  forgiveness,  faith,  salvation,  the  fu- 
ture life. 

What  Does  Jesus  Teach  Regarding 
God? 

Let  us  first  examine,  therefore,  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  concerning  God.  Most  non- 
Christians,  and  many  Christians,  think  of 
God  as  a  God  of  power  essentially.  He 
is  omniscient.  He  knows  everything.  He 
is  omnipotent.  He  can  do  anything.  It 
is  well  known  how  large  this  element  looms  in 
the  Moslem  conception  of  God.  The  recog- 
nition of  fate  and  the  inculcation  of  blind 
submission  express  this  emphasis  of  Islam. 
The  inscrutability  of  the  all-powerful  pur- 
poses of  Allah  and  the  uselessness  of  resist- 
ing them  are  cardinal  Mohammedan  doc- 
trines. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  rabbis  of  late  Juda- 
ism magnified  the  element  of  aloofness  in 
God's  nature.  In  the  thought  of  the  Jews, 
from  the  time  of  the  Babylonian  exile,  the 


THE  POWER  OF  GOD  99 

gap  between  Jehovah  and  his  people  tended 
to  increase.  The  sense  of  sin  and  of  its  curse 
brought  with  it  a  sense  of  moral  separation. 
The  growing  belief  in  intermediary  beings 
emphasized  this  separation  quite  as  much  as 
it  did  the  connection  between  God  and  man. 
The  whole  relationship  was  usually  con- 
ceived of  in  despotic  terms  which  linked  the 
aloofness  of  Jehovah  with  the  essential 
thought  of  power.  The  Jews  did  not  dare 
to  use  Jehovah's  real  name,  "  Jahwe."  It 
was  too  sacred.  They  employed  circumlo- 
cutions, or  combined  the  consonants  of  that 
name  with  the  vowels  of  another  and  less 
sacred  name,  "  Adonai,"  thus  creating  the 
familiar  but  linguistically  im justifiable  word, 
"  Jehovah." 

The  Power  of  God 

Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  emphasized  other 
phases  of  the  nature  of  God  more  strongly 
than  that  of  power.  Still  we  must  not  for- 
get that  the  God  of  Jesus  is  clearly  a  pow- 


100        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

erful  God.  In  the  famous  colloquy  with 
his  disciples  regarding  the  future  chances  of 
rich  men,  Jesus  asserts,  "  With  men  this  is 
impossible ;  but  with  God  all  things  are  pos- 
sible." ^  The  relative  dreadfulness  of  fall- 
ing into  the  hands  of  angry  men  or  of  an 
offended  God  is  described  in  these  undoubt- 
edly genuine  words:  "  And  I  say  unto  you, 
my  friends.  Be  not  afraid  of  them  that  kill 
the  body,  and  after  that  have  no  more  that 
they  can  do.  But  I  will  warn  you  whom  ye 
shall  fear:  Fear  him,  who  after  he  hath 
killed  hath  power  to  cast  into  hell ;  yea,  I  say 
unto  you.  Fear  him."  ^  Elsewhere,  simple 
trust  is  commended  in  the  words  of  a  nature 
lover,  "  Consider  the  lilies,  how  they  grow: 
they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin ;  yet  I  say 
unto  you.  Even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was 
not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  But  if  God 
doth  so  clothe  the  grass  in  the  field,  which 
to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the 

*Matt.  19:23-26. 
*  Luke  12 :  4-5. 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  101 

oven;  how  much  more  shall  He  clothe  you, 
O  ye  of  little  faith?  "^ 

That  everything  is  in  God's  hands,  Jesus 
everywhere  assumes  and  occasionally  as- 
serts. But  there  is  nothing  speculative  about 
his  assertions.  Many  of  our  theological  gar- 
ments have  been  woven  with  omnipotence  as 
the  warp  and  omniscience  the  woof.  This 
may  do  for  sackcloth  but  not  for  work-a-day 
clothes.  Jesus  cut  his  cloth  from  another 
pattern.  God  is  powerful — all-powerful,  in 
fact — but  his  power  is  a  practical  and  not  a 
speculative  matter.  Like  the  Sabbath,  "  it 
was  made  for  man  and  not  man  for  it." 

The  Love  of  God 

But  Jesus'  emphasis  is  not  on  power  at 
all,  but  on  the  love  of  God.  The  special 
term  he  used  for  God,  the  name  "  Father," 
which  has  ever  since  been  considered  distinc- 
tively Christian,  symbolizes  beautifully  both 

'  Luke  12 :  22-30 ;  Matt.  6 :  25-34. 


102        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

the  inclusiveness  of  Jesus'  conception  and  its 
special  interest.  The  name  was  not  a  new 
one.  It  appears  several  times  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  was  not  mifamiliar  to  the 
rabbis ;  but  with  Jesus  it  seems  to  have  taken 
on  a  new  connotation.  But  even  his  mean- 
ing was  not  absolutely  new.  Hosea,  Jere- 
miah and  Second  Isaiah,  among  others,  had 
stressed  the  loving  phase  of  Jehovah's  na- 
ture. Still,  the  depth  and  range  of  God's 
gracious  love  are  so  much  greater  in  the  Gos- 
pels that  they  stamp  the  whole  conception  as 
something  new.  New  it  still  is,  in  large  part. 
After  two  thousand  years  of  training,  even 
Christian  theory  still  finds  it  hard  to  survive 
at  the  altitude  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  Christian  practice  lags  far  behind  its 
theory.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said.  An 
eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth:  but 
I  say  unto  you,  Resist  not  him  that  is  evil: 
but  whosoever   smiteth  thee  on  thy  right 

cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also 

Whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  one  mile. 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  103 

go  with  him  two Ye  have  heard  that 

it  was  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor,  and 
hate  thine  enemy :  but  I  say  unto  you,  Love 
your  enemies,  ....  that  ye  may  be  sons  of 
your  Father  who  is  in  heaven."  ^ 

Love,  in  the  specially  Christian  sense,  in 
the  sense  determined  by  God's  own  nature, 
is  graciousness,  kindliness  and  helpfulness 
to  those  who  cannot  or  will  not  requite  it. 
Grasp  this  and  you  are  ready  to  understand 
the  heart  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  The  gist  of 
the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  in  the  very 
phase  of  the  story  which  causes  many  to  sym- 
pathize with  the  elder  brother.  The  whole 
point  is  the  very  lack  of  desert  in  the  Prodi- 
gal, his  previous  selfishness  and  ingratitude 
and  his  present  inability  to  offer  his  father 
anything  but  a  contrite  heart.  "  And  he 
arose  and  came  to  his  father  ....  his 
father  saw  him,  and  was  moved  with  compas- 
sion  And   the   son   said.   Father,   I 

have  sinned    ....  I  am  no  more  worthy 

'  Matt.  5 :  38^8. 


104         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

to  be  called  thy  son But  the  father 

said,  ....  let  us  ...  .  make  merry:  for 
this  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again ;  he 
was  lost,  and  is  found."  ^ 

The  ethical  difficulties  in  the  parable  of 
the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard  are  solved  in 
the  same  way.  The  parable  is  introduced 
with  the  words,  "  For  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  like  unto  a  man  that  was  a  house- 
holder." The  householder  is  the  central  fig- 
ure of  the  story  and,  in  him,  one  characteris- 
tic is  featured,  namely,  the  desire  to  help 
others  needlessly.  The  parable  does  not 
show  perfect  literary  execution,  but  it  is 
not  lacking  in  clarity.  It  teaches  the  free, 
boundless,  uncalculating  graciousness  of  the 
Father." 

The  unapproachably  beautiful  parable  of 
the  Good  Samaritan  leads  in  the  same  direc- 
tion by  a  different  path.  The  virtue  of  the 
Samaritan  consisted  in  his  rising  above  the 
ordinary  separations  of  life  by  means  of  a 

»  Luke  15 :  11-32.  *  Matt.  20 : 1-1& 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  105 

broad,  human  sympathy.  The  prologue  of 
the  parable  comiects  this  sort  of  neighborly 
love  with  a  right  relation  to  God  and  conse- 
quently presupposes  the  existence  of  the 
same  quality  in  God  himself/ 

Wherever  we  touch  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
we  feel  this  throbbing  sympathy,  expressed 
or  implied.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that 
the  symbol,  "  Father,"  was  his  favorite  name 
for  God,  for  it  expresses  most  aptly  Jesus' 
supreme  interest  in  the  practical  relation  of 
God  to  the  world:  a  relation  of  good-will, 
which  is  the  essential  content  of  the  "  in- 
wardness "  of  God. 

But,  can  we  not  go  further  in  analyzing 
the  content  of  this  good- will?  No  doubt  we 
are  learning  more  about  it  all  the  time.  The 
revelation  of  God's  love  is  not  yet  complete. 
It  is  growing  with  the  consciousness  of  the 
race.  Each  generation  adds  details  to  fill 
out  the  concept.  But  Jesus  did  not  leave  all 
this  to  those  who  should  come  after  him. 

»Luke  10:25-57. 


106         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

He  himself  tells  us  a  number  of  important 
things. 

For  instance,  we  learn  that  the  love 
which  the  Father  expects  from  his  children, 
namely,  his  own  loving-kindness,  is  not  a 
weak  and  pliant  thing.  It  must  not  be  con- 
fused with  softness.  The  Father  hates  sin. 
"  If  thy  right  eye  causeth  thee  to  stumble, 
pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from  thee:  for  it  is 
profitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members 
should  perish,  and  not  thy  whole  body  be  cast 
into  hell."  ^  Though  his  sympathy  is  as  wide 
as  the  horizon  and  as  deep  as  the  ocean,  it 
does  not  and  cannot  separate  sin  from  pun- 
ishment. "  And  if  thy  right  hand  causeth 
thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off  and  cast  it  from 
thee:  for  it  is  profitable  for  thee  that  one  of 
thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  thy 
whole  body  go  into  hell."  ^  These  and  other 
stern  passages  do  not  enable  us  to  paint  the 
picture  in  detail.  In  fact,  we  are  told  not  to 
judge,  "  that  ye  be  not  judged."    The  court 

»Matt.  5:29.  ^Matt.  5:30. 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  107 

dealing  with  such  things  is  one  over  which 
we  are  not  called  to  preside;  but  we  must 
hold,  if  only  as  a  word  of  admonition,  that 
Jesus'  conception  of  God  includes  some  re- 
lation to  "  the  wages  of  sin." 

Further,  we  learn  that  God's  love  is  of  a 
sort  that  demands  purity  of  heart.  "  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart:  for  they  shall  see 
God."^  It  generates  a  modest  willingness 
to  sink  fame  and  personal  glory  in  glad  ser- 
vice of  others.  "  And  Jesus  called  them  to 
him,  and  saith  unto  them.  Ye  know  that  they 
who  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles 
lord  it  over  them ;  and  their  great  ones  exer- 
cise authority  over  them.  But  it  is  not  so 
among  you:  but  whosoever  would  become 
great  among  you,  shall  be  your  minister ;  and 
whosoever  would  be  first  among  you  shall  be 
servant  of  all.  For  the  Son  of  Man  also 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  min- 
ister, and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many."  ^     It  demands  a  peace-loving  dispo- 

1  Matt.  5:8.  '  Mark  10  :  42-45. 


108        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

sition,  "Blessed  are  the  peacemakers;  for 
they  shall  be  called  sons  of  God  " ;  ^  single- 
ness of  purpose,  "  The  lamp  of  the  body  is 
the  eye;  if  therefore  thine  eye  be  single  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light.  But  if 
thine  eye  be  evil,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full 
of  darkness.  If  therefore  the  light  that  is 
in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is  the  dark- 
ness! No  man  can  serve  two  masters:  for 
either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the  other ; 
or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one,  and  despise 
the  other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mam- 
mon." ^ 

The  divine  love  is  of  a  sort  that  can  work 
only  through  obedient  wills.  In  fact,  it  is 
only  through  action  prompted  by  obedience 
to  the  divine  impulse  that  this  God-like 
structure  can  be  built  up.  "  Every  one 
therefore  that  heareth  these  words  of  mine, 
and  doeth  them,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  wise 
man,  who  built  his  house  upon  the  rock :  and 
the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 

»  Matt.  5:9.  '  Matt.  6 :  22-24. 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  109 

the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house; 
and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  the 
rock.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these 
words  of  mine  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be 
likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  who  built  his 
house  upon  the  sand ;  and  the  rain  descended, 
and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
smote  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell :  and  great 
was  the  fall  thereof."  ^  Again,  this  love  in- 
cludes a  whole-souled  and  eager  devotion  to 
righteousness,  hungering  and  thirsting,  as 
it  were,  for  everything  good.  "  Blessed  are 
they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness: for  they  shall  be  filled."  ^  The  nature 
of  these  demands  reveals  the  nature  of  the 
love  that  makes  them,  and  in  these  things  is 
the  true  love  from  God  made  manifest. 

The  patience  and  persistence  of  true  love 
is  clearly  indicated  in  the  words,  "  Blessed 
are  they  that  have  been  persecuted  for  right- 
eousness* sake  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.    Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  re- 

» Matt.  7 :  24-27.  '  Matt.  5 :  6. 


110         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

proach  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  say  all 
manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my 
sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad:  for 
great  is  your  reward  in  heaven :  for  so  perse- 
cuted they  the  prophets  that  were  before 
you."  ^  These  qualities  Jesus  pre-eminently 
embodied  in  his  own  life,  alike  in  his  relations 
with  slow-minded  disciples  and  exasperating 
enemies. 

He  often  insists  on  the  forgiving  spirit, 
also,  as  part  and  parcel  of  a  love  that  shares 
the  divine  nature.  "  Then  came  Peter  and 
said  to  him,  Lord,  how  oft  shall  my  brother 
sin  against  me,  and  I  forgive  him?  until 
seven  times  ?  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  I  say  not 
unto  thee.  Until  seven  times;  but,  Until 
seventy  times  seven."  ^  Then  follows  the 
condemnation  of  the  "  Unmerciful  Servant." 
Lastly,  true  love,  the  love  characteristic  of 
the  Father,  inevitably  entails  suffering. 
There  is  in  it  something  essentially  vicarious, 

^  Matt.  5  :  10-12. 

^'Matt.  18:21-22;  5:43-48;  6:12-15. 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  111 

something  that  involves  suffering  with  and 
for  others.  "  And  he  began  to  teach  them 
that  the  Son  of  Man  must  suffer  many 
things,  and  be  rejected  by  the  elders,  and  the 
chief  priests,  and  be  killed,  and  after  three 
days  rise  again.  And  he  spake  the  saying 
openly.  And  Peter  took  him,  and  began  to 
rebuke  him.  But  he,  turning  about,  and  see- 
ing his  disciples,  rebuked  Peter,  and  saith, 
Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan;  for  thou  mindest 
not  the  things  of  God,  but  the  things  of  men. 
And  he  called  unto  him  the  multitude  with 
his  disciples,  and  said  unto  them.  If  any  man 
would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself, 
and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me.  For 
whosoever  would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it; 
and  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake 

and  the  gospel's  shall  save  it "  ^ 

The  Cross  is  not  merely  an  essential  part 
of  the  original  gospel.  It  is  an  essential  ele- 
ment in  every  man's  true  appropriation  of 
*  Mark  8 :  31-35.  In  this  passage  the  specific  nature  of 
the  resurrection  prediction  is  probably  due  to  the  evange- 
list. 


112        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

the  "  Good  News,"  because  it  is  essential  to 
the  "  things  of  God."  When,  therefore,  we 
speak  of  love  without  including  in  our  con- 
ception lines  of  demarcation — separations, 
hardness,  suffering — we  substitute  for  the 
true  conception  a  soft,  emasculated  senti- 
mentality which  is  quite  a  different  thing. 
We  mind  "  not  the  things  of  God,  but  the 
things  of  men." 

The  distinctive  thing,  therefore,  about 
Jesus'  emphasis  upon  love  in  the  character 
of  God  is  not  its  separation  from  other  ethi- 
cal qualities  and  its  exaltation  in  disregard 
of  them,  or  at  their  expense.  It  is,  rather, 
that  all  possible  virtues  are  subsumed  under 
this  all-controlling  principle  in  which  they 
become  fused,  by  which  they  are  energized, 
and  through  which  a  proper  balance  may  be 
secured  in  their  exercise.  In  a  sense,  the 
thought  of  God  and  of  his  demands  is  thus 
immensely  simplified,  in  that  the  eye  may  be 
focused  on  one  point  instead  of  on  many. 
But  this  is  truly  a  terrible  simplicity.    It  is 


GOD  AND  NATURE  113 

SO  rich,  varied,  many-sided  and  all-embrac- 
ing, and  hence  so  hard  to  acquire.  These 
things  enable  us  to  understand  how  two  di- 
verse and  apparently  contradictory  sayings 
of  Jesus  may  both  be  true,  namely,  "  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me;  .... 
for  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is 
light " ;  and,  "  Enter  ye  in  by  the  narrow 
gate:  ....  For  narrow  is  the  gate  and 
straitened  the  way,  that  leadeth  unto  life."  ^ 

God  and  Nature 

We  must  not  forget  to  add  a  word  re- 
garding Jesus'  conception  of  God's  relation 
to  the  physical  universe.  Man's  conquest  of 
nature  has  caused  many  terrors  to  vanish  like 
a  morning  cloud,  but  others  have  arisen  to 
take  their  place.  Whatever  the  development 
of  science,  man  will  never  entirely  conquer 
nature.  On  the  contrary,  nature  is  bound  to 
conquer  man,  sooner  or  later;  at  death,  if 
not  before.    A  religion  that  does  not  meet 

*  Matt.  11 :  28-30 ;  7 :  13-14. 


114         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

the  needs  arising  from  this  condition  cannot 
permanently  satisfy  the  heart  of  man.  In 
this  connection,  Jesus  everywhere  builds  on 
the  basis  already  laid  down  by  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  His  teaching,  as  usual,  is  practi- 
cal and  not  speculative.  He  assumes  that 
God  is  the  creator  of  the  universe  and  clearly 
teaches  that  the  universe  is  good  because  it 
is  God's  work.  There  is  no  essential  gap  be- 
tween this  phase  of  things  and  the  human 
phase.  Both  alike  are  objects  of  his  loving 
care.     "  Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Be  not 

anxious    for    your    life Behold    the 

birds  of  the  heaven,  that  they  sow  not,  neither 
do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns ;  and  your 
heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  not  ye 
of  much  more  value  than  they?  "  ^ 

The  Nearness  of  God 

This  leads  naturally  to  another  element  in 
Jesus'  conception  of  God,  and  with  this  we 
may  conclude.    In  Jesus'  thought,  the  Fa- 

»Matt  6:26^30. 


THE  NEARNESS  OF  GOD  115 

ther  was  very  near  to  him.  This  sense  of  the 
nearness  of  God  was  one  of  the  characteris- 
tics which  marked  him  off  from  his  contem- 
poraries. They  prayed  pubhcly  and  elab- 
orately. He  sought  silence  and  solitude  in 
which  to  meet  his  Father.  "  He  withdrew 
himself  into  the  deserts  and  prayed."  ^  In 
silence  and  in  solitude  he  cultivated  simplic- 
ity in  prayer.  "  And  when  ye  pray,  ye  shall 
not  be  as  the  hypocrites:  for  they  love  to 
stand  and  pray  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the 
corners  of  the  streets,  that  they  may  be  seen 

of  men But  thou,  when  thou  prayest, 

enter  into  thine  inner  chamber,  and  having 
shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  who  is  in 
secret."  ^  Why  use  many  words?  The  Fa- 
ther is  there  and  knoweth  your  needs  be- 
fore you  ask.  In  simple  heart-confession  we 
should  lay  our  needs  before  God  with  the  sin- 
cerity and  desire  of  the  Publican,  knowing 
that  God  is  near  and  will  hear  the  cry  of  the 
soul.     To  Jesus,  God  was  an  all-powerful 

^  Luke  5 :  16.  "  Matt.  6 : 5-15. 


116        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

and  an  all-righteous  God,  but  he  was  es- 
pecially the  all-loving  and  ever-present  one. 
This  is  the  particular  content  of  Jesus' 
thought  of  God  and  of  the  symbol  "  Father  " 
which  he  has  made  distinctively  Christian. 

What  Does  Jesus  Teach  Concerning 

Man? 

What  does  Jesus  teach  concerning  man; 
his  nature,  place,  and  destiny  ?  We  have  al- 
ready answered  this  question,  in  part,  while 
setting  forth  Jesus'  conception  of  God.  It  is 
important  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
this  overlapping  in  the  presentation  is  due 
largely  to  the  complete  fusion  of  the  ethical 
and  religious  elements  of  life  in  Jesus'  view 
of  things.  This  fusion  is  one  of  the  central 
facts  of  Christian  teaching;  a  fact  which 
allies  it  closely  with  Hebrew  prophetism  and 
clearly  distinguishes  them  both,  in  degree,  if 
not  in  kind,  from  all  other  historic  religious 
viewpoints.    In  other  words,  Christianity  is 


JESUS'  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN    117 

not  merely  an  ethical  system.  It  is,  rather, 
an  ethico-religious  life. 

But  we  can  and  we  must  say  much  more 
than  has  been  said  about  Jesus'  teaching  con- 
cerning man's  nature,  relations  and  destiny. 
The  filial  nature  of  man  is  the  natural  corol- 
lary which  Jesus  drew  from  his  paternal  con- 
ception of  God.  Man  is  the  child  of  God,  the 
son  of  the  Father.  "  I  say  unto  you,  Love 
your  enemies,  and  pray  for  them  that  perse- 
cute you ;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father 
who  is  in  heaven."  "  Whosoever  shall  do 
the  will  of  God,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and 
sister  and  mother."  "  Suffer  the  little  chil- 
dren to  come  unto  me;  forbid  them  not: 
for  to  such  belongeth  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Whosoever  shall  not 
receive  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child, 
he  shall  in  no  wise  enter  therein."  * 

In  a  sense,  all  men  are  sons  of  the  Father ; 
that  is,  potentially.  While  limiting  his  ac- 
tivity almost  entirely  to  members  of  his  own 

>  Matt.  5 :  43-48 ;  18 : 1-3 ;  Mark    3  :  31-35 ;  10 :  13-15. 


118        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

race,  in  his  teaching  Jesus  evidently  deals 
with  man  as  man.  His  sympathy  is  inter- 
racial. The  Good  Samaritan  steps  across 
the  high  barrier  between  his  people  and  the 
Jews  and  is  commended  therefor.  Jesus  rec- 
ognizes the  great  faith  of  the  Roman  cen- 
turion with  the  striking  words,  "  I  have  not 
found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel."  ^ 
Human  life,  as  such,  possesses  worth  and 
dignity  and  is  full  of  boundless  possibilities. 
There  is  not  an  absolute  difference  of  kind 
between  the  human  spirit  and  the  divine ;  no 
complete  gap  or  break  that  needs  to  be  arti- 
ficially bridged.  Jesus  accepted  the  old  He- 
brew thought  expressed  in  one  of  the  crea- 
tion stories,  "  And  God  said.  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness ;  and  let 
them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  birds  of  the  heavens,  and  over 
the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over 
every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth.     And  God  created  man  in  his  own 

•  Matt.  8 :  10-12. 


JESUS'  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN    119 

image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him.* 
In  man  as  man,  therefore,  resides  an  infi- 
nite capacity  God-ward.  This  gives  a  basis 
for  endless  effort,  not  only  in  self-develop- 
ment, but  also  in  behalf  of  others.  This  faith 
in  man  also  is  itself  a  progress-producing 
conviction,  for  men  will  attack  the  most  diffi- 
cult problems  if  only  they  can  believe  that  a 
solution  is  possible.  Jesus  was  never  tired 
of  helping  those  about  him,  even  the  most 
despised  and  degenerate,  because  he  saw  in 
them  the  possibilities  of  Christian  sonship. 
This  is  the  basal  idea  of  man  which  he  tried 
to  inculcate  by  precept  and  example,  "  Every 
one  is  worthful." 

This  worth  is  due,  however,  to  the  kind 
of  life  of  which  man  is  capable,  even  though 
he  may  not  yet  be  the  possessor  of  it; 
namely,  the  divine  life.  It  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  is  a  potential  child  of  God,  even 
though  actual  sonship  is  yet  to  be  achieved. 
In  a  real  sense,  man  as  man  is  a  child  of 

»  Gen.  1 :  26-27. 


120        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

God  and  in  another  sense,  equally  real,  he 
must  become  a  child  of  God.  "  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  Except  ye  turn,  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  ^  "  Ye  there- 
fore shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly 
Father  is  perfect."  ^  This  must  be  taken  in 
the  light  of  the  context  and  can  only  mean, 
*'  Ye  shall  be  controlled  by  the  same  loving 
purpose  which  controls  the  Father."  That 
is,  man  becomes  a  son  of  God  by  submit- 
ting willingly  and  joyfully  to  the  divine  will 
which  is  one  of  uncalculating  love.  In  be- 
coming a  child  of  the  Father,  he  becomes 
like  God  in  this  particular.  In  other  words, 
the  divine  element  in  man  is  not  different 
from  the  divine  element  above  man.  There 
is  but  one  principle  for  both,  and  what  God 
is  in  respect  to  that  principle,  man  may  be- 
come.   This  is  his  manifest  destiny. 

No  conception  of  human  nature  could  be 
more  exalted,  and  yet  it  does  not  ignore  the 

»  Matt.  18 :  3.  » Matt.  5 :  48. 


JESUS'  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN    121 

hard  facts  of  life.  It  transcends  them,  not 
by  ignoring,  but  by  conquering  them.  Ig- 
norance, filth,  vice  and  disease  often  force 
us  to  ask  whether  the  ideal  of  actual  divine 
sonship  is  at  all  possible.  In  many  cases  it 
seems  like  a  Utopian  dream;  and  yet,  history 
and  present-day  experience  afford  us  ample 
testimony  to  the  power  of  God  in  bringing 
men  to  himself,  even  out  of  apparently  hope- 
less conditions.  The  justification  of  this 
faith  must  be  sought  in  a  progressive  reali- 
zation of  the  ideal  among  men,  in  signs  that 
this  process  is  really  taking  place. 

This  ideal  of  divine  sonship  is  realized 
whenever  loving  service,  of  an  entirely  dis- 
interested sort,  goes  forth  from  man  to  man. 
Here  is  the  fusion  of  the  ethical  and  the 
religious  in  Jesus'  teaching.  In  the  Old 
Testament,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord,  thy 
God,  with  all  thy  heart "  and  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  "  appear  in  dif- 
ferent  books.      In   the    Gospels,   Jesus   is 


122        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

represented  as  bringing  them  together.  * 
Throughout  all  his  teaching  these  two  truths 
are  inseparable.  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  these 
least,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  ^  Brotherly  love  is 
the  central  and  controlling  ethical  principle. 
Faithful  devotion  to  the  will  of  God  is  the 
religious  principle.  But  each  is  the  con- 
verse of  the  other  and  its  complement.  In 
Jesus'  teaching,  and  in  true,  complete,  Chris- 
tian living,  they  are  not  sundered. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  in  what 
I  have  said  about  the  potential  divinity  of 
man,  according  to  Jesus'  teaching.  Lest 
I  be  misunderstood,  let  me  emphasize  fur- 
ther the  references  already  made  to  the  dark 
facts  of  human  life  and  the  necessity  of  con- 
version. The  merely  "  potential "  child  of 
God  must  truly  be  "  converted  "  in  order  to 
"  become  "  an  "  actual  "  child  of  God.  This 
is  the  change  from  the  "  natural "  man  to 

*  Deut.  6:4-5;  Lev.  19 :  18 ;  Luke  10 :  25-29. 
»  Matt.  25 :  31-46. 


THE  "  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  "     123 

the  "  spiritual "  man  of  which  Paul  says  so 
much  and  which,  indeed,  constitutes  the 
great  religious  problem  for  us  all.  This 
change  is  not  an  easy  sliding  from  stage  to 
stage.  Even  where  least  remarked,  due  to 
favorable  upbringing,  it  means  a  right- 
about-face. Concrete  instances  tend  to  re- 
new our  faith  in  the  primacy  of  the  so-called 
"  grace  of  God "  in  this  central  religious 
experience.  But  it  makes  a  great  deal  of 
difference  whether  this  "  grace  "  has  poten- 
tiality to  work  with  or  nothing  to  work  with. 
In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  see  what  the 
difference  is. 

The  "Kingdom  of  Heaven  " 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  was  promulgated 
by  him  under  the  Jewish  caption,  "  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  "  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  "  Many  shall  come  from  the  east 
and  the  west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abra- 
ham, Isaac  and  Jacob,  in  the  Kingdom  of 


124         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

Heaven."  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like 
unto  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  ....  leaven 
....  a  treasure  hid  in  a  field  ....  a  mer- 
chant seeking  goodly  pearls."  "  She  saith 
unto  him,  Command  that  these  my  two  sons 
may  sit,  one  on  thy  right  hand,  and  one  thy 

left  hand,  in  thy  Kingdom But  Jesus 

called  them  unto  him,  and  said,  Ye  know  that 
the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it  over  them, 
and  their  great  ones  exercise  authority  over 
them.  Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you:  but 
whosoever  would  become  great  among  you 
shall  be  your  minister.  .  .  ."  ^ 

It  may  be  that  Jesus  thought  of  the  future 
establishment  of  the  Kingdom  in  a  somewhat 
Jewish  way;  that  is,  a  Kingdom  to  be  mi- 
raculously set  up  by  God  himself  soon  after 
Jesus'  death.  Certainly  we  must  beware  of 
modernizing  his  conception  by  reading  into 
it  social  ideas  which  are  current  to-day.  This 
is  a  knotty  problem,  and  perhaps  an  insolu- 
ble one.     We  do  not  have  to  wait  for  its 

» Matt.  5:3;  8 :  11 ;  13  :  31-33,  44-47 ;   20 :  20-28. 


OTHER  FUNDAMENTAL  QUESTIONS  125 

solution,  however,  for  whatever  conclusion 
we  reach,  all  must  agree  that  the  Kingdom 
was  to  Jesus  a  spiritual  thing,  fundamen- 
tally. It  signified  the  inner  union  of  man 
with  God  and  with  his  fellow-man ;  a  great, 
congenial  family  of  men  at  one  with  God 
and  devoted  to  the  execution  of  his  will. 

Some  Other  Fundamental  Questions 

All  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  the  funda- 
mental issues  of  religion  should  be  inter- 
preted in  the  light  of  the  controlling  em- 
phases already  mentioned.  Sin  is  anything 
that  interferes  with  true  sonship.  It  is  not 
so  much  an  act  as  an  attitude.  Hence,  pride 
and  hypocrisy  may  be  worse  than  sins  usu- 
ally deemed  much  baser.  Righteousness, 
too,  is  not  a  mosaic  of  correct  perform- 
ances, but  a  rightly  directed  personal  at- 
titude. Personality  is  indivisible  and  so  is 
righteousness;  a  personal  thing  which  ex- 
ceeds the  "  righteousness  "  of  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  in  that  it  is  inward,  real,  sincere. 


126        THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

and  freed  from  the  thought  of  self  by  being 
itself,  essentially,  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
others.  Forgiveness  flows  forth  from  the 
ever-ready  love  of  God  to  everyone  who 
sincerely  repents.  When  thus  received,  it 
necessarily  propagates,  in  and  through  the 
recipient,  the  forgiving  spirit.  Repentance 
is  the  portal  to  the  Kingdom,  as  with  John 
the  Baptist,  and  forgiveness  the  joyous  ex- 
perience of  an  actual  child  of  God,  the  fact 
of  being,  or  of  becoming,  reconciled  with 
him. 

Finally,  his  conception  of  salvation  and 
of  the  judgment  is  inextricably  bound  up 
with  the  Kingdom  idea.  If  the  Jewish  em- 
phasis was  controlling,  then  the  idea  of 
future  salvation  and  judgment  must  have 
been  Jesus'  paramount  thought.  That  the 
future  was  included  in  his  teaching  on  these 
subjects  seems  clear  to  me,  but  the  content 
of  this  teaching  is  not  so  clear.  We  may 
say  with  perfect  assurance,  however,  that 
whether  present  or  future,  in  this  world  or 


SOCIAL  EMPHASIS  127 

in  the  beyond,  or  both,  salvation  and  judg- 
ment could  have  had  only  one  qualitative 
meaning  for  Jesus.  When  Zaccheus  rises 
to  a  nobler  plane  of  motive,  Jesus  cries, 
*'  To-day  is  salvation  come  to  this  house." 
And  elsewhere  he  says,  "  He  that  loses  his 
life  shall  save  it  and  he  that  saveth  his  life 
shall  lose  it."  Salvation  comes  by  losing 
oneself  in  the  all-compelling  purpose  of  the 
Father's  Kingdom,  and  judgment  rests  on 
him  who  treasures  his  own  life  for  its  own 
sake  and  is  loath  to  let  it  go. 

Is  Jesus'  Teaching  Social  in  its  Em- 
phasis? 

The  Kingdom  concept,  as  adopted  by 
Jesus,  necessarily  implies  a  social  reference 
and  emphasis,  but  it  is  not  social  in  the  cur- 
rent sense  of  that  word.  Jesus'  teaching 
was  primarily  individualistic;  but  it  affords 
ground  for,  and  imparts  a  great  impetus  to, 
an  extended  social  application. 

There  has  been  a  vast  deal  of  faulty  in- 


128         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

terpretation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in 
favor  of  social  conceptions  that  are  wholly 
modern.  Many  of  these  modern  conceptions 
and  the  practical  programs  inspired  by  them 
engage  my  whole-hearted  sympathy.  We 
know  too  much  now  about  heredity,  envir- 
onment, the  drag  of  the  physical  and  the 
tyranny  of  the  mass,  not  to  realize  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  "  social  salvation."  The 
future  of  Christianity  depends  upon  its 
recognition  of  these  facts  and  upon  the 
application  of  its  spirit  to  these  needs  and 
problems.  Nevertheless,  legitimate  deduc- 
tion from,  and  necessary  application  of,  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  are  not  to  be  confused  with 
historical  interpretation.  This  interpreta- 
tion yields  the  conclusion,  already  given, 
that  Jesus'  teaching  was  primarily  individ- 
ualistic but  affords  ground  for,  and  im- 
parts a  great  impetus  to,  an  extended  social 
application.  Recent  tendencies  among  so- 
cial workers  make  me  think  that  the  original 
individualism  of  Christianity  needs  to  be  re- 


CONCLUSION  129 

emphasized  in  certain  quarters.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  whole  sections  of  the 
Christian  Church  still  unaware  of  the  social 
problem  and  of  the  social  implicates  of 
Jesus'  teaching. 

Conclusion 

Such  was  Jesus'  teaching  and,  as  we  saw 
at  the  beginning,  such  must  have  been  his 
life;  for  these  sayings  have  a  flavor  about 
them  betraying  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
lived  out,  not  thought  out,  merely.  Had 
Jesus  been  a  mere  teacher,  whose  life  did 
not  especially  exemplify  what  he  taught, 
we  might  be  justified  in  maintaining  that 
the  essence  of  Christianity  lies  in  the  con- 
trolling ideas  of  his  teaching.  But  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Jesus  lived  out  what  he  taught, 
and  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  his  actual  life,  even 
more  than  of  his  sublime  teaching,  that  has 
given  us  historical  Christianity.  Thus  the 
Church  has  been  right  in  insisting  on  the 
Person  of  Christ  as  central.    Of  course  we 


130         THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

must  change  our  formulae,  for  we  are  now 
obliged  to  approach  this  religious  question, 
and  all  others,  from  a  standpoint  far  differ- 
ent from  that  of  our  ancestors.  But  the  car- 
dinal thing  about  Christianity  is  still  the  fact 
that  "  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,"  and  the  cardinal  experience 
awaiting  each  one  of  us,  if  we  have  not  al- 
ready had  it,  is  to  behold  "  his  glory,  glory 
as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father,  full 
of  grace  and  truth." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

Christians  are  agreed  on  the  divinity  of 
Christ  far  more  than  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
theological  terminology  would  indicate.  If 
the  truth  were  only  realized,  or  admitted, 
many  conservatives  and  liberals,  who  now 
think  the  gap  between  them  wide  and  irredu- 
cible, would  find  themselves  standing  close 
together.  The  trouble  is  that  many  of  the 
former  insist  on  having  the  exaltation  of 
Jesus  expressed  in  their  terms  alone;  other- 
wise, they  deny  that  the  exaltation  is  real 
or  sufficient.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of 
the  latter  refuse  to  use  language  strong 
enough  to  express  their  true  appreciation 
of  Jesus,  for  fear  they  will  be  under- 
stood as  subscribing  to  ideas  they  no  longer 
hold.    They  deny  themselves  biblical  phrase- 

131 


132        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

ology  which  most  aptly  and  beautifully  ex- 
presses the  fundamental  agreement  which 
may  still  exist  between  the  views  of  a  modern 
thinker  and  those  of  the  historic  Church  re- 
garding Jesus  Christ.  The  effect  of  this  at- 
titude may  be  unfortunate,  but  its  motive  is 
clear  and  praiseworthy.  These  men  do  not 
wish  to  fall  into  the  unsteady  arms  of  com- 
promise, for  the  compromiser  is  abroad  in 
the  land. 

The  New  Phase  of  the  Question 

The  status  of  the  problem  for  many  men 
has  changed  utterly.  Science  cannot  dictate 
to  us  what  our  faith  shall  be,  but  it  has  es- 
tablished a  method  of  procedure  which  must 
be  followed  in  all  historical  investigation. 
And  the  problem  of  the  divinity  of  Christ 
is,  in  the  first  instance,  an  historical  problem. 
We  must  ascertain  the  historical  facts  by 
means  of  scientific,  historical  processes  be- 
fore we  seek  to  pass  judgment  on  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  facts,  else  we  are  dealing  with 


NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  QUESTION  133 

unknown  quantities.  Thus  the  old  deductive 
method  is  gone  forever.  That  is,  we  cannot 
begin  with  God  and  deduce  therefrom  the 
divinity  of  Jesus.  God  is  the  unknown,  or 
partially  unknown  quantity  that  can  be 
determined  only  by  equations  of  historical 
fact,  and  these  equations  can  be  satisfied 
only  by  means  of  the  historical  method.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  we  can  prove  the 
existence  of  God  by  means  of  the  historical 
method.  Far  from  it.  What  I  maintain  is 
that  any  vital  faith  in  God  springs  out  of 
facts ;  that  an  educated  man  should  consider 
the  whole  realm  of  historic  fact  in  forming 
his  conception  of  God;  that,  finally,  such  a 
consideration,  to  be  valid,  involves  the  use 
of  the  historical  method.  The  problem  maj^ 
be  put  in  this  way:  What  sort  of  God,  if 
any,  do  the  facts  of  life  lead  us  to  believe  in  ? 
Does  the  historical  Jesus  stand  as  the  gate- 
way, par  excellence,  to  belief  in  such  a  God  ? 
If  so,  what  should  be  our  final  estimate  of 
Jesus  ? 


134        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

The  Teaching  of  the  New  Testament 

The  Church  has  been  right  in  emphasizing 
the  Person  of  Christ  as  the  central  fact  of 
Christianity.  In  this  it  has  but  followed 
the  example  of  the  earliest  disciples  of  Jesus. 
Perhaps  I  should  use  the  word  "  personal- 
ity," because  "  person  "  has  acquired  a  mean- 
ing which  is  beyond  my  present  thought.  It 
was  not  Jesus  the  teacher,  alone  or  chiefly, 
who  won  disciples.  It  was  Jesus  the  Person ; 
Jesus  the  man.  He  lived  a  life  that  com- 
pelled a  following  and  those  Jews  who  fol- 
lowed him  gave  him  the  highest  rank  they 
could,  next  to  God  himself,  namely,  messiah- 
ship.  To  them  he  was  the  messenger  of 
God,  bringing  light  and  life ;  subordinate  to 
God,  but  second  only  to  him.  This  is  the 
messianic  viewpoint,  and  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  it  is  alsolutely  dominant. 

At  some  time  between  this  primitive 
period  and  the  appearance  of  the  Gospel  of 
John,  there  arose  the  view  of  the  Person  of 


NEW  TESTAMENT  TEACHING     135 

Jesus  so  appealingly  set  forth  in  the  beau- 
tiful stories  of  the  infancy.  We  need  not 
discuss  here  whether  these  narratives  of 
Matthew  and  Luke  arose  before  or  after 
the  time  of  Paul,  nor  whether  they  were 
placed  where  they  are  by  the  evangelists 
themselves  or  by  later  editors.  It  satisfies 
our  present  purpose  to  remark  that  here 
we  have  a  distinct  attempt  to  account  for 
Jesus'  divine  origin,  this  being  already  be- 
lieved in  on  other  grounds.  We  do  not 
have  to  import  myths  in  order  to  account  for 
this  phenomenon.  The  Hebrew  ancestors 
of  these  Jewish  Christians  had  often  mani- 
fested a  tendency  to  ascribe  a  supernatural 
birth  to  those  whom  they  regarded  as  their 
great  religious  leaders,  as  in  the  cases  of 
Isaac  and  of  Samuel.  A  similar  but,  natu- 
rally, much  stronger  tendency  gave  rise, 
probably,  to  the  accounts  of  Jesus'  birth  and 
infancy.  The  idea  these  stories  embody  is 
that  of  "  physical  fihation."  They  were 
creations  of  "  popular  devotion,  destined  to 


136         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

explain  the  divine  sonship  of  Christ  by  his 
supernatural  generation."  This  important 
product  of  popular  theology  eventually  be- 
came a  cardinal  factor  in  the  final  shaping 
of  the  Christian  creeds,  in  which  it  was  amal- 
gamated with  various  other  elements — primi- 
tive Jewish- Christian,  Pauline,  Johannine 
and  others.  That  it  was  not  such  a  factor 
in  the  first  century  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  ignored  by  Paul  and  the  author  of 
the  Gospel  of  John.  Indeed,  such  a  theory 
as  that  of  "  physical  fiHation  "  is  far  from 
compatible  with  either  of  these  other  historic 
Christian  viewpoints,  namely,  the  Pauline 
and  the  Johannine. 

Paul's  Christian  experience  was  of  the 
transcendent  type.  Its  conscious  beginning 
was  surrounded  by  abnormal  conditions  and 
the  vision  of  Christ  on  the  road  to  Damascus 
was  ever  the  burning  center  of  his  religious 
and  theological  universe.  Further,  he  cut 
himself  off,  in  large  part,  from  the  details  of 
Jesus'  historical  career  which  so  determined 


NEW  TESTAMENT  TEACHING      137 

the  thought  of  his  Jewish-Christian  brothers. 
Hence  it  was  but  natural  that  the  heavenly 
Christ  should  be  the  burden  of  his  thought 
and  that  correspondingly  lofty  conceptions 
should  appear  in  his  writings.  In  his  way 
he  gave  Jesus  the  first  place.  And  yet  he 
everywhere  subordinates  him  to  God,  "  even 
the  Father  "  to  whom  "  he  shall  deliver  up 
the  Kingdom  "  at  "  the  end." 

What  Paul  did  in  his  way  the  author  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel  also  did,  but  in  a  way 
peculiar  to  himself.  Accustomed  to  the 
thought  of  the  Philonic  school,  he  exalted 
his  Lord  and  Master  in  the  terms  that  lay  at 
hand.  In  so  doing,  he  performed  a  great 
service  for  the  thinking  people  of  his  day. 
Jesus  was  to  him  "  the  Word  made  flesh." 
This  was  understandable  to  a  Greek  and 
doubtless  many  were  led  to  a  proper  estimate 
of  Jesus  through  this  way  of  describing  him. 
The  Philonic  definitions  of  "the  Word" 
are  somewhat  confusing.  Sometimes  **  the 
Word  "  is  spoken  of  as  equal  with  God  and 


138         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

sometimes  in  terms  of  subordination  to  him. 
It  was  really  a  term  of  mediation  for  a  day 
when  the  gap  between  God  and  man  was 
felt  to  be  much  greater  than  it  is  now  felt 
to  be  or,  as  we  may  remark  in  passing, 
than  Jesus  evidently  felt  it  to  be.  "  The 
Word  "  was  the  highest  of  all  divine  inter- 
mediaries; the  first  step  of  God  downward 
toward  man.  The  author  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  possessed  a  deep  Christian  experi- 
ence together  with  an  Alexandrian  educa- 
tion and  he  could  not  find  a  better  or  more 
suitable  name  for  his  Master  than  this  term 
of  mediation  current  in  the  Alexandrian 
school. 

The  Rise  or  the  Creeds 

Two  centuries  of  conflict,  conquest  and 
compromise  passed  over  the  Christian  faith. 
Out  of  these  things  came  the  great  creeds  of 
Christendom.  Christianity  was  enthroned 
upon  the  seat  of  power.  "No  longer  could  it 
be  said,  "  Not  many  wise,  not  many  mighty. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  CREEDS        139 

are  called."  Probably  the  great  moving  life 
of  the  religion  was  then,  as  always,  down  in 
the  midst  of  the  mass  of  common  hmnanity, 
but  the  shaping  of  Christian  polity  and  doc- 
trine was  no  longer  a  naive  thing.  It  was 
in  the  hands  of  men  skilled  in  politics. 
"  Practical  "  men  controlled  these  things  and 
"  practical "  then  meant  just  what  it  means 
now :  a  full  recognition  of  the  force  of  modi- 
fying circumstances.  What  were  these  mod- 
ifying circumstances?  They  were  the  cus- 
toms of  the  Greco-Roman  world,  its  methods 
of  organization  and  its  modes  of  thought. 
It  is  not  pertinent  to  discuss  here  the  details 
of  the  adaptation  to  environment  which 
Christianity  underwent,  consciously  and  un- 
consciously, in  the  first  three  centuries  of  its 
history.  I  do  not  agree  with  those  who  hold 
that  all  this  represented  decay.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  was  inevitable  and  it  has  had  its 
place  of  value  in  the  progress  of  mankind. 
Furthermore,  as  far  as  the  creeds  were  con- 
cerned, it  represented,  at  least  in  part,  a 


140         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

sincere  attempt  to  explain  to  the  thinking 
people  of  the  day  how  the  God  of  the 
heavens  had  actually  come  into  contact  with 
a  sorely  needy  hmnanity,  through  Christ. 
The  creeds  did  for  the  time  what  now  we 
see  every  age  must  do  for  itself  anew;  and, 
for  my  part,  as  against  the  Arians,  I  think 
the  truth  then  lay  with  the  Athanasians. 

But  we  have  gone  a  long  way  upon  the 
path  of  knowledge  since  the  fourth  century. 
We  know  more  about  the  human  mind  and 
its  subtle  workings;  more  about  the  Bible 
and  the  way  in  which  it  was  written;  and, 
historically  at  least,  more  about  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  and  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing him  and  his  first  disciples.  This  and 
other  new  knowledge  has  forever  buried  the 
Athanasian  monuments  in  the  sands  of  ob- 
livion, removing  them  from  the  sight  of  a 
modern  man  who  is  seeking  practical  relig- 
ious realities.  Perhaps  I  should  say  that 
this  ought  to  be  the  situation.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  a  wrong  conception  of  dogma  has 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  CREEDS       141 

fastened  the  Athanasian  viewpoint  on  the 
Christian  Church,  as  something  infallible  and 
unchangeable.  Otherwise,  we  should  not 
have  even  to  refer  to  it  here. 

The  problem  of  describing  satisfactorily 
Jesus'  relation  to  God  and  to  the  world  is 
to-day,  in  many  respects,  an  entirely  differ- 
ent problem  from  that  confronting  the 
Church  Fathers.  In  fact,  much  more  recent 
phases  of  the  problem  are  antiquated.  The 
choice  that  is  usually  held  out  at  present,  of 
accepting  historic  Trinitarianism  or  of  being 
classed  as  a  Unitarian,  is  an  incorrect  way 
of  presenting  the  issue.  This  false  dilemma 
is  due  partly  to  mere  polemic,  partly  to  fail- 
ure to  understand  the  existing  situation,  and 
partly  to  the  laziness  or  the  legalism  of  minds 
which  cannot  get  on  without  convenient  cat- 
egories which  save  time  and  effort.  The 
issue  to-day  is  simply  between  what  is  Chris- 
tian and  what  is  non-Christian.  The  choice 
lies  between  espousing  the  Christian  view  of 
life  and  paying  homage  to  some  other  view. 


142        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

And  by  espousing  the  Christian  view  of  life 
I  mean  making  effective  in  thought  and 
in  daily  living  Jesus'  fundamental  ideas  of 
God,  man,  the  world,  and  their  interrela- 
tions ;  the  ideas  which  we  find  controlling  in 
his  teaching  and  in  his  life.  This  practi- 
cal, personal  appropriation  of  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  is,  of  course,  the  main  problem  for  us 
all,  but  the  mind  is  justified  in  seeking  the 
implications  involved  and  in  asking  further, 
"  What  think  ye  of  Christ? "  This  is  not 
merely  a  speculative  task  whose  results  are 
purely  theoretical.  A  clear  answer  has  prac- 
tical value  in  that  it  clarifies  many  moral  and 
religious  questions. 

The  Incaenation  and  the  Doctrine 
OF  Human  Natuee 

The  belief  in  the  necessity,  for  salvation, 
of  a  complete  incarnation  of  God  in  human 
form  has  been  due  to  a  prior  belief,  namely, 
that  human  nature  is  essentially  and  entirely 
corrupt.    In  early  Christian  thought,  begin- 


THE  INCARNATION  143 

ning  at  least  as  early  as  Paul,  the  evident  evil 
in  human  life  was  joined  with  the  biblical 
story  of  the  fall  of  man.  The  theory  of  the 
complete  corruption  and  perverseness  of 
man  was  the  result.  On  such  a  theory  it  was 
natural  to  think  of  God  as  bringing  salvation 
to  man  solely  through  a  miraculous  incarna- 
tion. Thus  arose  the  necessity,  in  the  minds 
of  the  thinkers  of  that  day,  for  regarding 
Jesus  as  the  "  God-Man,"  in  the  historic 
meaning  of  that  term,  namely,  "  God  and 
man  in  one  Person  forever." 

That  God  is  continually  incarnating  him- 
self in  human  life,  a  religious  man  must 
surely  hold ;  and  the  one  differentiating  mark 
of  the  Christian  believer  is  that  he  believes 
Jesus  to  have  been  the  supreme  incarnation 
of  the  God-life  in  man.  As  Sabatier  says, 
"  The  Heavenly  Father  lives  within  the  Son 
of  Man,  and  the  dogma  of  the  God-Man, 
interpreted  by  the  piety  of  each  Christian, 
not  by  the  subtle  metaphysics  of  the  doctors 
and  the  schools,  becomes  the  central  and  dis- 


144        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

tinguishing  dogma  of  Christianity."  But 
one  difficulty  with  the  position  of  historic 
Trinitarianism  is  that  it  fails  to  recognize  the 
fundamental  view  of  man  revealed  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels — a  view  which  is  sup- 
ported by  modern  psychology  and  by  our 
everyday  experience — namely,  that  human 
nature  is  not  totally  corrupt;  that,  as  Jesus 
taught,  all  men  are  potentially  "  children  of 
God  " ;  that  is,  there  is  in  man,  by  nature,  a 
divine  element  to  build  on.  Hebrew  tradi- 
tion expresses  this  same  view  in  Gen.  1:26- 
27,  where  we  read,  "  And  God  said,  *  Let  us 
make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness  ' 
....  and  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him." 
The  story  of  the  fall,  whatever  it  may  have 
meant  to  the  ancient  Hebrew,  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  effacing  from  his  mind  this  belief. 

What  is  needed  for  salvation,  then,  is  such 
an  incarnation  of  the  divine  life  in  human 
form  as  to  lead  men  to  turn  their  backs  on 
their  lower,  animal  origin  and  turn  their 


THE  INCARNATION  146 

faces  toward  God  and  his  will.  Many  lead- 
ers of  mankind  have  performed  this  task 
measurably,  but  one  may  easily  come  to  the 
conviction  that  Jesus  has  done  it  supremely 
and  for  all  time.  If  one  yields  to  him  the 
practical  lordship  of  life,  salvation  will  in- 
evitably follow.  We  may  consider  this  sal- 
vation as  sudden,  when  it  involves  a  complete 
change  of  attitude,  as  is  often  the  case — con- 
version, in  the  root  sense  of  the  word.  Or  we 
may  regard  it  as  gradual,  in  that  it  means 
the  steady  and  often  long-drawn-out  attempt 
to  realize  the  Christian  attitude  in  all  the  re- 
lationships of  life.  Again,  we  may  regard  it 
as  present  and  this-worldly,  in  that  it  brings 
true  satisfaction,  joy,  and  achievement  in 
this  life.  Finally,  we  may  think  of  it  as  a 
future  possession,  or  state  of  being  after 
death.  Under  certain  conditions  the  con- 
tinuance of  life  after  death  would  be  in- 
tolerable. Can  we  conceive  of  its  being 
"  blessed  "  apart  from  a  capacity  to  appre- 
ciate and  appropriate  the  divine  life  revealed 


146        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

in  Jesus?  For  such  a  salvation — and  who 
would  not  concede  its  sufficiency? — it  is  not 
necessary  to  subscribe  to  the  historic  defini- 
tion of  the  incarnation  which  the  Church  has 
formulated  and  insisted  upon.  If  one  can 
say  with  Paul,  "  God  was  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself,"  as  a  true  Chris- 
tian must  be  able  to  say,  he  is  in  a  position 
to  secure  all  the  religious  and  ethical  benefits 
which  Christianity  in  any  form  has  ever  been 
able  to  proffer. 

We  may  cast  bulwarks  about  this  posi- 
tion, at  this  point,  by  reminding  ourselves  of 
Jesus'  own  teaching  and  also  of  the  position 
of  the  earliest  disciples.  To  my  mind,  Jesus 
clearly  taught  that  he  was  the  Messiah ;  and, 
to  the  first  disciples,  this  was  the  true  and 
final  word  by  which  to  describe  him.  This 
term  did  not  mean  then  what  later  Christian 
theologians,  saturated  with  philosophic  con- 
ceptions, considered  it  to  mean.  It  meant 
merely  that  member  of  the  Jewish  race  who 
was  divinely  "  anointed  "  to  introduce  and 


THE  INCARNATION  14.7 

head  the  "  Kingdom  of  God."  Why  may  we 
not  go  bacTi  to  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  con- 
tent ourselves  with  the  thought  of  Jesus  as 
the  introducer  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
among  men  and  its  divine  head  ?  Then,  freed 
from  any  compelling  necessity  regarding  el- 
aborate metaphysics  and  abstruse  dogma,  we 
may  devote  our  whole  energy  to  the  supreme 
and  eternally  vital  task  of  being  introduced 
into  the  Kingdom  ourselves  in  order  that  we 
may  "  minister "  to  the  many  others  who 
need  the  same  introduction.  Jesus  was  cer- 
tainly not  careful  to  insist  on  his  complete 
infallibility  in  all  departments  of  knowledge 
or  of  life,  else  he  would  never  have  said, 
"  Why  callest  thou  me  good?  None  is  good 
save  one,  even  God  " ;  nor  would  he  have  dis- 
claimed knowledge  of  the  exact  time  of  the 
coming  of  the  Kingdom.  The  disciples, 
also,  were  not  careful  about  such  abstract 
considerations,  else  they  would  never  have 
reported  these  sayings.  A  position  sufficient 
for  the  Master  himself,  and  for  his  first  dis- 


148         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

ciples,  is  surely  sufficient  for  us;  and  if  we 
go  back  to  it,  as  we  easily  can,  we  shall  be 
relieved  of  a  great  incubus  and  set  free  for 
the  glorious,  compelling.  Christian  task  of 
making  the  real  Christ-life  dominant  in  the 
world. 

God  and  the  Holy  Spieit 

Another  objection  to  the  hitherto  prevail- 
ing viewpoint  is  the  distinction  it  seeks  to 
establish  between  God  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  very  attempt  made  to  unite  them. 
This  is  easily  understandable  when  we  con- 
sider the  history  of  this  phase  of  dogma. 
In  the  ancient  world,  especially  in  late  Jew- 
ish thought  and  in  the  later  developments  of 
Platonism,  God  was  conceived  of  as  stand- 
ing entirely  apart  from  the  world  of  men 
and  of  things,  as  far  as  his  own  direct  ac- 
tivity was  concerned.  He  was  the  onty  holy 
one,  superior  to  mundane  matters  in  his 
awesome  majesty;  or  a  principle  of  truth  and 
goodness  that  could  not  be  brought  into  con- 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  149 

tact  with  human  aff au's  except  through  some 
intermediary.  Hence  the  idea  of  angels  and 
other  intermediary  beings,  or  principles,  like 
the  Philonic  "Word"  which  the  Fourth 
Gospel  adopts,  to  bring  the  God-life  down 
to  earth.  Hence  the  separative  conception 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  acting  as  a  bearer 
of  good  from  God  to  man. 

There  is  much  truth  in  all  these  con- 
ceptions. The  Christian  position  as  embod- 
ied in  Jesus'  teaching  is  theistic,  certainly. 
That  is,  God  is  not  man  and  man  is  not  God. 
If  there  is  to  be  any  impartation  of  the 
spiritual  God  to  a  man  potentially  but  not 
actually  spiritual,  it  must  come  through 
channels  that  can  effectively  accomplish  the 
transference  of  spiritual  life.  History  leads 
us  to  believe  that  such  impartation  is  direct 
from  God  to  man;  the  actual  Spirit,  which 
is  God  himself,  working  directly  upon  the 
potential  spirit,  which  is  man ;  but  also  prop- 
agated from  man  to  man  by  the  impelling 
power  of  God  in  man.    Thus  any  religious 


160        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

leader  of  mankind  is  an  intermediary  and 
Jesus  may  be  considered  the  supreme  inter- 
mediary— not  only  prophet  and  king,  but 
also  priest,  if  we  care  for  historic  termi- 
nology. 

But  a  modern  thinker,  of  any  idealistic 
kind  whatsoever,  finds  it  hard,  if  he  thinks 
about  the  matter  at  all,  to  differentiate  be- 
tween God  and  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 
God  is  not  only  "  a  spirit "  but  the  Spirit, 
and  where  the  Spirit  of  Holiness  is,  there 
is  God.  What  is  the  reason  for,  or  the  value 
of,  differentiating  them  and  then  bringing 
them  together  again  by  means  of  a  meta- 
physical formula  which  none  can  understand 
and  which  has  no  practical  religious  value 
that  cannot  be  secured  in  another  way? 
Whatever  may  be  said  for  plurahstic  views 
of  the  universe  in  general,  nothing  can  be 
said  for  that  sort  of  pluralism  which  prac- 
tically says:  "Let  x^y  and  y=oc;  then  x 
and  y  are  identical  and  yet  distinct."  This 
sort  of  thing  may  do  very  well  on  paper,  but 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  151 

it  does  not  touch  real  life.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  general  trend  of  our  modern 
thought  is  toward  the  unity  of  the  final 
reality  underlying  the  world;  and  in  so  far 
as  this  trend  is  actual,  just  so  far  do  these 
ancient  distinctions  between  God  the  Father 
and  God  the  Holy  Spirit  become  difficult  to 
maintain. 

Here,  again,  it  is  a  comfort  and  a  support 
to  return  to  Jesus'  teaching  and  to  the  posi- 
tion of  the  first  disciples.  In  the  Gospel  of 
John,  to  be  sure,  and  in  the  Pauline  epistles, 
the  concept  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  prominent, 
but  it  is  far  from  being  the  metaphysical  con- 
cept of  later  times.  In  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
reported  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  that  is,  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  the  idea  appears  in 
the  accounts  of  only  four  separate  incidents. 
In  two  of  these  cases  the  parallel  passages 
raise  a  possible  question  regarding  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  record  in  this  particular. 
The  third  case  is  a  quotation  from  Isaiah, 
and  in  the  fourth,  the  phrase  used  is  "  Spirit 


162         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

of  your  Father."  Taking  all  four  instances 
exactly  as  they  stand,  the  most  satisfactory 
interpretation  is  that  here  we  have  either  the 
customary  Jewish  circumlocution  to  avoid 
the  use  of  the  divine  name,  or  simply  the 
old  Hebraic  use  of  the  word  "  spirit."  Cer- 
tainly nothing  could  be  further  from  the  evi- 
dent meaning  of  these  passages  than  a  meta- 
physical distinction  between  God  and  his 
Spirit.  Everywhere  else,  and  in  numerous 
connections  where  we  might  expect  to  find 
the  concept  of  the  Holy  Spirit  introduced, 
Jesus  consistently  uses  the  word  "  Father  " 
and  emphasizes  the  direct  and  irmnediate 
contact  between  God  and  his  children. 

There  are  seven  other  occasions  reported 
in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  in  which  we  find  the 
Holy  Spirit  mentioned.  One  is  a  citation 
from  Isaiah  and  five  of  the  others  are  mani- 
festly of  the  Hebraic  type  already  referred 
to.  The  seventh  is  the  famous  passage  in 
Matt.  28:19,  where  the  risen  Jesus  is  re- 
ported   as    using    the    threefold    formula 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  153 

"  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit."  What- 
ever one's  view  of  its  literary  history,  this 
particular  verse  does  not  belie  the  truth  of 
the  statement  that  the  Synoptic  Gospels  are 
dominated  by  the  messianic  conception  of 
Jesus  and  that  the  idea  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
rarely  found ;  also,  when  found,  the  idea  does 
not  warrant  the  metaphysical  interpretation 
so  often  put  upon  it. 

In  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  in  the  Syn- 
optic Gospels  generally,  God  is  thought  of 
as  the  loving  Father,  so  near  that  there  is 
no  need  nor  room  for  any  intermediary  be- 
tween him  and  his  children.  He  who  is 
Spirit,  the  Spirit,  is  close  at  hand — God 
himself.  With  the  disciples  it  was  really  a 
"  duality,"  the  Father  and  the  Son.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Pauline  and  the  Johan- 
nine  conceptions  of  the  Spirit,  mentioned  in 
connection  with  God  the  Father  and  Jesus 
the  Son,  are  far  removed  from  the  fourth- 
century  conception.  They  are  really  only 
practical  working  definitions,  describing  in 


154         THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

terms  of  actual  Christian  experience  the  way 
in  which  God  works  in  the  world.  This  is 
also  true  of  the  threefold  formula  of  Matt. 
28:19,  referred  to  above.  Undoubtedly, 
however,  in  all  these  instances  the  thought  is 
beginning  to  tend  away  from  the  simple, 
practical  significance  of  the  Hebraic  and 
dominant  Synoptic  emphasis. 

The  Main  Cause  of  Present  Mis- 
understanding 

In  spite  of  these  strictures,  my  sympathies 
are  with  historic  Trinitarianism  rather  than 
with  Unitarianism.  Certainly  any  sympa- 
thetic religious  man  who  is  not  a  bigot  would 
respond  to  the  general  attitude  taken  by 
such  great  Unitarian  leaders  as  Channing 
and  Martineau,  but,  generally  speaking, 
Unitarianism  has  interested  itself  too  largely 
in  pointing  to  the  negative  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. In  insisting,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  that  Jesus  was  "  a  mere  man  "  it  has 
failed,  along  with  many  of  its  opponents 


PRESENT  MISUNDERSTANDING    155 

also,  to  recognize  the  fact  that  no  man  is  "  a 
mere  man,"  according  to  genuine  Christian 
teaching.  Much  less  can  it  be  said  of  such 
a  one  as  Jesus  that  he  was  "  a  mere  man." 
This  point  has  already  been  referred  to, 
but  it  must  be  insisted  upon  because  the  chief 
root  of  present  misunderstanding  is  here. 
Both  extreme  conservatives  and  extreme 
radicals  base  their  position  on  the  old  and 
mistaken  view  that  human  nature  is  totally 
different  and  disconnected  from  the  divine 
nature.  I  have  pointed  out  that  this  view 
does  not  accord  with  ancient  Hebrew 
thought  nor  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Neither  does  it  accord  with  the  results  of 
modern  psychology.  It  sprang  out  of  late 
Jewish  and  late  Platonic  developments, 
through  both  of  which  it  effected  an  entrance 
into  Christian  thought  and  became  control- 
ling. So  long  as  it  persists,  so  long  will  men 
who  ought  to  be  together  remain  separated, 
because  the  particular  way  in  which  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ  is  conceived  of  depends  upon 


156        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

this  prior  position.  If  there  is  an  absolute 
gap  between  human  nature  and  the  divine, 
then  the  divinity  of  Christ  will  be  conceived 
of  as  a  complete,  miraculous  incarnation,  and 
the  tendency  will  be  to  run  the  whole  gamut 
of  external  authority,  infallibility  and  mi- 
raculous proof.  If  human  nature  is  recog- 
nized as  potentially  divine,  the  divinity  of 
Christ  will  be  thought  of  as  such  an  impar- 
tation  of  divine  life,  in  the  realm  of  the  ethi- 
cal and  the  religious,  as  will  infallibly  draw 
men  to  God,  if  Jesus  be  truly  given  the  pre- 
eminence. Thus  men's  hearts  will  be  turned 
away  from  sin  and  they  will  be  led  in  the 
ways  of  righteousness. 

Can  We  Believe  In  the  Divinity  of 
Christ? 

Let  me  gather  together,  in  conclusion,  the 
positive,  constructive  elements  in  the  posi- 
tion here  taken,  lest  their  full  force  be  di- 
minished through  the  piecemeal  statement 
necessitated  by  the  previous  inevitable  argu- 


BELIEF  IN  THE  DIVINITY         157 

ment.  Most  people  inherit  their  religion 
with  the  color  of  their  hair  and  either  do  not 
question  it  at  all  or  do  not,  cannot,  question 
fairly.  Even  those  who  have  been  forced  to 
question  most,  in  formulating  their  religious 
views,  are  controlled  far  more  by  practical 
tendencies  than  by  purely  intellectual  con- 
siderations. This  is  as  it  should  be  and  as  it 
has  ever  been.  For  most  of  us  an  intellectual 
statement  is  only  a  buttress  for,  or  a  clar- 
ification of,  a  faith  already  more  or  less 
spontaneously  appropriated.  Still,  we  may 
be  helped  by  such  a  statement  because  our 
minds  demand  it.  Religion  cannot  do  with- 
out dogma.  If  a  body  of  religionists  should 
unite  on  the  simple  basis  of  their  belief  in 
God,  the  universal  Father,  that  basis  would 
be  a  dogmatic  basis.  What  is  needed  is  not 
the  elimination  of  dogma  but  its  simplifica- 
tion, and  also  a  provision  for  its  continual 
revivification  through  the  adaptation  of  its 
statement  to  advancing  knowledge.  Let  us, 
therefore,  for  entirely  practical  reasons,  put 


158        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

forth  an  account  of  the  intellectual  process 
by  which  a  modern  man,  with  full  recognition 
of  the  results  of  science  and  of  historical 
criticism,  may  defend  his  faith  in  the  divinity 
of  Jesus. 

We  have  a  life  to  live  in  the  midst  of  a 
world  that  is  partly,  but  only  partly,  intelli- 
gible to  us.  In  order  to  live  that  life  most  ef- 
fectively it  is  necessary  to  have  some  convic- 
tion regarding  the  why  of  it  all,  the  whence 
and  the  whither  of  things.  The  facts  of  ex- 
istence give  us  clues  which  we  may  follow  up 
far  enough  to  establish  reasonable  hypothe- 
ses, or  faiths,  by  means  which  we  can  govern 
our  action,  holding  fast  the  more  firmly  as 
experience  justifies  our  faith;  discarding  or 
modifying  as  experience  compels  us  thus  to 
change.  One  is  at  liberty,  of  course,  to  inter- 
pret the  universe  in  terms  of  the  lowest  of  its 
elements,  provided  one  is  willing  to  pay  the 
penalty.  So,  one  may  fix  his  faith  in  atoms, 
become  a  materialist,  and  consider  all  spiri- 
tual forms  of  life  as  illusory.    It  would  seem 


BELIEF  IN  THE  DIVINITY         159 

more  reasonable,  however,  to  believe  that  the 
ultimate  nature  of  an  organism  is  that  re- 
vealed by  its  highest  manifestations;  that 
which  it  is  capable  of  producing  at  its  best. 
If  this  is  true  of  plants  and  animals,  may  we 
not  reasonably  assume  it  to  be  true  of  the 
universe  of  things,  plants,  animals  and  men  ? 
One  may  easily  say  that  one  thinks  a  stone  is 
as  good  as  a  man,  but  "  actions  speak  louder 
than  words,"  and  therefore  we  do  not  have 
to  argue  the  position  that  there  is  an  ascend- 
ing scale  of  being  in  the  universe  from  the 
inanimate,  through  the  merely  animate,  to 
the  consciousness  of  man. 

Current  observation  and  the  study  of  his- 
tory both  may  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that, 
in  man,  it  is  not  merely  intellectual  acumen 
which  is  significant,  but  also,  still  more,  what 
we  call  character  and  spiritual  appreciation, 
because  the  latter,  far  more  than  the  former, 
have  to  do  with  the  direction  and  employ- 
ment of  man's  abilities  and  with  his  destiny. 
Among  the  various  exponents  of  competing 


160        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

types  of  character  and  spiritual  appreciation 
stands  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  not  merely  as  a 
teacher  of  what  is  known  as  the  Christian 
life,  but  also  as  a  living  exemplar  of  it.  It 
was  never  easier  than  now  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  Jesus — not  in  his  teaching 
merely,  but  in  himself,  in  his  Person — we 
have  the  highest  personal  manifestation  of 
spiritual  life  that  the  world  has  yet  seen. 
This  conclusion  may  be  reached  not  only 
through  the  direct  response  the  life  of  Jesus 
calls  forth,  but  also  by  considering  the  age- 
long and  ever-increasing  command  it  has  ex- 
ercised over  the  hearts  of  men — a  command 
which,  in  these  latter  days  even  more  than 
at  earlier  times,  is  overleaping  geographical, 
political  and  racial  boundaries  and  is  exert- 
ing its  benign  influence  on  man  as  man. 

What  can  we  say,  then,  about  a  universe 
which  has  produced  this  wonderful  phenom- 
enon? What  must  we  say?  Are  not  we  jus- 
tified in  holding  that  the  essential  nature  of 
the  organism  is  best  revealed  in  this,  its  finest 


BELIEF  IN  THE  DIVINITY         161 

flower?  Are  we  not  compelled  to  say  that 
such  things  are  not  due  to  chance?  If  not 
chance,  then  what?  At  this  point  should  we 
not  bend  the  knee  and  recognize  our  God? 
And  must  it  not  be  that  such  a  God  is  es- 
sentially of  the  same  spirit  and  purpose  as 
the  life  through  which  we  come  to  a  belief 
in  him?  In  other  words,  must  not  our  God 
be  like  Jesus  of  Nazareth?  He  cannot  be 
inferior  to  him  and  remain  God;  nor  can 
we  easily  imagine  a  quality  of  life  superior  to 
that  of  Jesus.  Thus  the  usual  form  of  the 
problem  is  reversed.  The  modern  question 
is  not,  *'  Is  Jesus  like  God?  "  but  rather,  "  Is 
there  a  God  of  the  same  quality  of  life  as 
that  possessed  by  Jesus?"  God  is  the  cc, 
the  unknown  quantity  which  we  are  seeking 
to  determine,  and  it  seems  most  reasonable 
to  hold  that  Jesus  is  the  known  factor 
through  which  we  are  enabled  to  solve  the 
problem. 

If  all  this  is  true,  or  in  general  accordance 
with  the  truth,  then  we  are  ready  to  use  with 


162        THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST 

intelligence,  discrimination,  and  yet  with 
whole-hearted  self -commitment,  many  of  the 
time-worn  terms  that  have  been  hallowed  by 
Christian  usage.  Especially  may  it  be  said 
that  the  language  of  the  New  Testament 
serves  to  express  fittingly  our  proper  appre- 
ciation of,  and  our  attitude  toward,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  We  may  call  him  Messiah,  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Revealer,  the 
Savior,  Lord,  and  Master.  In  his  varied 
functions  he  will  be  to  us  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King.  Nothing  will  be  too  high  or  too 
lofty  to  express  our  faith  in  him,  our  trustful 
attitude  toward  him,  or  our  recognition  of 
his  supreme  and  final  place  in  the  drama 
of  life  portrayed  before  our  half-blind  eyes 
upon  the  wondrous  stage  of  God's  great 
universe. 


INDEX 


Abraham,  123 

Acts,  Book  of,  3,  7,  15,  17, 

33,  34,  35 
Adonai,  99 
Agouy  in  the  Garden,  The, 

18,   58 
Alexander  the  Great,  20 
Alexandrian,  75,  138 
Allah,  98 
Anointing  at  Bethany,  The, 

76 
Apocalypse,  3 
Apostolic,  18 
Apostolic  Succession,  14 
Aramaic,  19,  20,  21,  22,  86 
Arians,  140 

Arnold,  Matthew,  87,  95,  96 
Ascension,  The,  35,  80 
Asia  Minor,  27 
Athanasian,  140,  141 
Athanasians,  140 

Babylonian  Exile,  The,  98 

Baptism,  56 

Baptism  of  Jesus,  The,  56 

Baptist,  14 

Betrayal,  The,  79 

Bible,  The,  11,  14,  89,  140 

Biblical,  143 

Brahmanism,  97 

Buddhism,  97 

Caesarea  Philippi,  65 
Catholic,    14 
Catholicism,  11 
Catholics,  11 
Channing,  W.  E.,  154 
Christ,  66,  90,  131,  137,  142, 
162 


Chronology  of  the  Ministry, 

59 
Church,  The,  14,  45,  54,  129, 

132,    141,   146 
Church  Fathers,  The,  141 
Cleansing   of    the   Temple, 

The,  77 
Conservatives,  131,  155 
Corinthians,    First    Epistle 

to  the,  17,  35 
Cornelius  the  Centurion,  7 
Creeds,  The,  136,  138,  139, 

140 
Cross,  The,  15,  18,  31,  62. 

64,  80,  111 
Cursing   of   the  Fig  Tree, 

The,  76 

Damascus,  136 
David,  51 
Demons,  39.  60 
Deuteronomy,  93 
Divinity  of  Christ,  54,  61, 

130,    131,    132,    133,    155, 

156,  158 

Egypt,  30 
Elijah,  51,  66 
Elisha,  51 
Episcopalian,  14 

Fall  of  Man,  The,  143 

Galilean,  76.  77 

Galilee,  34,  52,  59,  60,  63, 

75,  82 
Genesis,  119,  144 
Gentiles,  7,  8,  44,  69,  107, 

124 


163 


164 


INDEX 


Good  Samaritan,  The,  104, 

118 
God-Man,  The,  143 
Greco-Roman,  52,  139 
Greek,    19,   20,   21,   22,    86, 

137 
Greeks,  15 

Hebraic,  152,  154 
Hebrew,    21,    88,    114,    116, 

118,  185,  144,  155 
Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,  17, 

31,  58 
Herod  the  Great,  50 
Herodians,  The,  62 
Hillel,  Rabbi,  53 
Holy  Spirit,  The,  4,  148-154 
Hosea,  102 

Incarnation,  The,  142-148 
Interpretation,   Method   of, 

86,  91,  128 
Isaac,  123,  135 
Isaiah,  151,  152 
Islam,  98 
Israel,  118 

Jacob,  123 

Jahwe,  99 

James,  The  Apostle,  72 

Jehovah,  99,  102 

Jeremiah,  14,  102 

Jerusalem,   34,   51,   52,   59, 

69,  73,  75" 
Jewish,   4,    11,    20,   52,    55, 

75,    77,    88,    91,    94,    123, 

124.    126.    135.    136,    137, 

146,  148,  152,  155 
Jews,  4,   7,   15.   52,  57,   92, 

98,  99,  118,  134 
Johannine,  26,  136,  153 
John,  The  Apostle,  26,  27, 

28,  72 
John  the  Baptist,  13,  55,  56, 

66,  126 
John,  The  Gospel  of,  12,  26, 


31.  55,  61,  66,  71,  72,  75, 
77,  78,  79,  134,  136,  137, 
138,  149 

Jcnah,  51 

Jordan,  The,  73,  74 

Joseph,  30 

Josephus,  1 

Judaism,  4,  7,  98 

Judea,  59,  74 

Kingdom,  The,  36,  44,  45, 
46,  60,  61,  64,  78,  82,  93, 
104,  109,  117,  120,  123, 
124,  125,  126,  127,  137, 
147 

Laborers  in  the  Vineyard, 

The,  104 
Latin,  19 
Law,  The,  2,  7,  11,  13,  88, 

89,  90,  92,  93,  95 
Lazarus,  The  Raising  of,  42 
Leviticus,  93 
Liberals,  131 
Lincoln,  17 
Logia,  20,  21 
Logia-Document,  20,  21,  24, 

26,  74 
.Logos,  The,  27,  31,  137,  138, 

149 
Lord's  Supper,  The,  12,  17, 

78,   79 
Lourdes,  41 
Luke,  Gospel  of,  3,  5,  21,  22, 

24,  25,  28,  30,  34,  54,  57, 

58,  74,  92,  135 
Luke,  Prologue  of,  25 
Luther,  11 

McGiffert,  A.  C,  22,  23 

Mammon,  108 

Mark,  22,  23,  24 

Mark,    The    Gospel   of,   22, 

24,  26,  28,  31,  60,  65,  67, 

73,  74 
Martineau,  James,  154 


INDEX 


165 


Mary,  30 

Matthew,  20,  21,  22 

Matthew,  The  Gospel  of, 
14,  21,  22,  24,  25,  28.  30, 
55,  57,  58,  61,  74,  92,  135 

Menzies,  Allan,  10,  13,  16 

Messiah,  44,  57,  60,  70,  146, 
162 

Messiahship,  61,  134 

Messianic,  55,  57,  134,  153 

Miletus.  17 

Miracles,  20,  36,  38^4,  76 

Monroe,  James,  10 

Mouioe  Doctrine,  The,  11 

Moslem,  98 

Nazareth.  3.  27,  28,  30,  47, 
52,  S3,  140,  160,  161,  162 

New  Testament,  The,  2,  7, 
14,  32,  33,  134,  162 

Noah,  51 

Old  Testament,  The,  7,  8, 
44,  48,  51,  52,  55,  58, 
76,  102,  121 

Palestine,  6,  21,  50 

Papias,  21,  22,  23 

Parable,  76,  86,  103,  104,  105 

Passover,  The,  76 

Paul,  1,  2.  3.  5,  8,  9,  15,  17, 

31,  33,  35,  36,  37,  87,  88, 

90,  123,  135,  136,  143,  146 
Pauline,  2,  136,  151,  153 
Perea,  59,  73,  74 
Perean,  76 
Person  of  Christ,  The,  46, 

129,  134,  143,  160 
Peter,    15,    23,    66,    67,    72, 

82,  83,  110,  111 
Peter's  Confession,  65,  67 
Petrine,  24 
Pharisaism,  94,  96 
Pharisees,  The,  18,  62,  78, 

94,  95,  125 


Philippians,  The  Epistle  to 

the,  31 
Philonic,  27,  137,  149 
Pilate,  1 
Platonic,  155 
Platonism,  148 
Prodigal  Son,  The,  103 
Prophecy,  14,  52,  55,  76 
Prophetism,  116 
Prophets,   The,   51,   66,   88, 

110,  114 
Protestant,  14 
Protestants,  11 
Psychical  Research,  Society 

for,  81 
Publican,  The,  115 

Queen  of  Sheba,  The,  51 

Rabbinical,   53,  63,  91,  94, 

95 
Rabbinism,  53,  78 
Rabbis,  The,  62,  63,  77,  98, 

102 
Radicals,  155 
Resurrection,  The,  2,  13,  29, 

33,    35,    36,    44,    67,    69, 

70,  80-84 
Roman,  55 
Roman  Centurion,  The,  118 

Sabatler,  Auguste,  143 

Sabbath,  The,  101 

Samaria,  59 

Samaritan,  104 

Samuel,  135 

Satan,  68,  111 

Scribes,  The,  52,  67,  69,  78, 

95,  125 
Scriptures,  The,  7 
Second  Isaiah,  61,  70,  102 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  The, 

102 
Sidon,  63 

Social  Salvation,  128 
Solomon,  51,  100 


166 


INDEX 


Son  of  God,  The,  162 

Son   of   Man.  The,   64,   67, 

68,  69,  107,  111,  143 
Sower,  The  Parable  of  the, 

61 
Supernatural,  The,  43 
Synoptic,   28,   67,   134,   144, 

147,  151,  152,  153,  154 
Synoptics,  The,  27,  77,  79 

Tacitus,  1 

Temptation,  The,  57-59 
Thomas,  The  Apostle,  37 
Transfiguration,  The,  72 
Trinitarianism,     141,     144, 

154 
Triumphal  Entry,  The,  76 


Tyre,  63 

Unitarian,  141,  154 
Unitarianism,  154 
United  States,  The,  10 
Unmerciful    Servant,   The, 
110 

Virgin  Birth,  The,  29,  30, 
33,  50,  51,  135,  136 

Washing      the      Disciples' 

Feet,  79 
Washington,  17 

Zaccheus,  127 


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A  MONTESSORI  MOTHER.  By  Dorothy  Canfield  Fisher 

A  thoroly  competent  author  who  has  been  most  closely 
associated  with  Dr.  Montessori  tells  just  what  American 
mothers  want  to  know  about  this  new  system  of  child 
training.     {Helpfully  illustrated.     $1.25  tiet.) 

THE  CHILD ;  Its  Care,  Diet,  and  Common  Ills. 

By  Dr.  E.  Mather  Sill 

Lecturer  in  New  York  Polyclinic,  Attending  Physician  at 
Good  Samaritan  Dispensary,  New  York,  etc.  With  34  illustra- 
tions. 207  pp.;  16mo.  ($1.00  net.)  Circular  with  sample 
pages  on  request. 

_  "Very  well  calculated  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  young  mother.  Espe- 
cially it  contains  much  useful  information  which  I  have  not  found  in 
other  books  of  the  kind." — Drt.  Henry  McMaiion  Painter,  of  the  New 
York   Nursery   and   Child's  Hospital. 

MAKING  A  BUSINESS  WOMAN.     By  Anne  Shannon  Monroe 

A  young  woman  whose  business  assets  are  good  sense, 
good  health,  and  the  ability  to  use  a  typewriter,  goes  to  Chi- 
cago to  earn  her  living.     ($1.30  net.) 

WHY  WOMEN  ARE  SO.  By  Mary  R.  Coolidge 

Explains  and  traces  the  development  of  the  woman  of  1800 
into  the  woman  of  to-day.     ($1.50  net.) 

THE  SQUIRREL-CAGE.  By  Dorothy  Canfield 

A  novel  recounting  the  struggle  of  an  American  wife  and 
mother  to  call  her  soul  her  own.  {ord  printing.    $1.35  net.) 

HEREDITY  in  RELATION  to  EUGENICS.    By  C.  B.  Davenport 

"One  of  the  foremost  authorities  .  .  .  tells  just  what  scientific 
investigation  has  estalilished  and  how  far  it  is  possible  to  control  what 
the  ancients  accepted  as  inevitable."- — N.  Y.  Times  Review. 

{With  diagrams,  3rd  printing.     $2.00  net.) 
THE  GLEAM.  By  Helen  R.Albee 

A  frank  spiritual  autobiography.     {4th  printing.    $1.35  net.) 


HENRY      HOLT      AND      COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01091   9589 


Date  Due 

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